


Left 4 Dead: A Wizard's Nightmare.

by leontina (Leontina)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-01
Updated: 2012-10-09
Packaged: 2017-11-06 13:22:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 50,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/419374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leontina/pseuds/leontina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It should have been a nice break for Harry and friends. But not even wizards can escape a zombie infestation. Harry Potter/Left 4 Dead 2 crossover. Ellis/Harry slash. Eventual Nick/Ellis/Harry. Gore. Violence. Language. Zombies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> For the workings of this story, the Harry Potter dates have been moved forward to fit it in with the Left 4 Dead timeline, but nothing major has come of this. Also, major character deaths in the first chapter.

It had supposed to have been a relaxing break for Harry Potter and his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, who had finally graduated after their seven years at Hogwarts. Hermione had suggested they take a long holiday and the two boys had been quick to agree as Harry had never been abroad before, and Ron had only gone a few times; once to Egypt and the rest to Romania to see his brother Charlie. After a long discussion they decided on America. Hermione had learnt how to drive while at Hogwarts, a feat that only she could manage along with all their schoolwork, but it meant that they were able to rent a car while they were there. The plan was to fly over to Los Angeles and make their way across the Southern states, ending in Savannah, Georgia, as Hermione had cousins who lived there. They had decided to take a plane rather than portkey over, as they had decided to go as muggle as they could, their wands only with them as a precautionary measure.

Harry had defeated Voldemort in his seventh year and the Death Eaters most loyal to him had been killed, while the lower ranking ones were either in Azkaban or under house arrest, so the teenagers were not really expecting any trouble. Or so they thought until they reached Georgia.

It had been hard not to hear about the illness that was ravaging the Eastern states. It was on the radio, in the newspapers and on the tongues of everybody they came across. They said it was a strain of Flu; Green Flu they were calling it. It had started somewhere in Pennsylvania and had spread rapidly from there. They were advising people not to travel to those areas unless absolutely necessary, but said that there were doctors working on cures and preventative medicine and they hoped to have it contained in no time at all. It seemed to have just started after they arrived and a just over a week later they couldn't escape it.

Harry and his friends had nothing to be worried about of course; wizards and witches were immune to the majority of muggle illnesses and the ones they could get were ones their magic didn't bother in defending them against, such as the common cold. If it was serious, their magic would kick in almost instantly, although wizarding illnesses were a different story altogether. The fact this flu was infecting muggles however, meant the Gryffindors felt quite safe considering muggles could not get magical diseases. It was a different story for the locals they were meeting on their travels however. A lot of the small towns they had passed through were almost dead, with people barricading themselves indoors, while the bigger towns and cities seemed to have a mixture of people who acted like nothing was happening, while others were clearly in a mode of panic, gossiping to anybody who would listen about their worries. Clearly the attempt to convince the public it was a simple illness that would be over in no time was not working.

Another week and a bit later on, and the hysteria had gotten even worse, as the illness was now spreading to other states. Although nothing official had been stated, Pennsylvania was now pretty much a no-go zone. The panic was starting to get to Hermione slightly and she suggested they skip out on some of the places they had planned to visit and instead go straight to her cousins in Georgia. The boys could tell she was worried about them so they thought it better to agree with her. It would take them a while to get there, but it made Hermione happier to make sure they were okay.

By the time they reached Savannah, it had been three weeks since the Green Flu had made an appearance, and as they got closer to the area most affected by it, they could see how badly people had reacted. Cars had been abandoned on roads, windows and doors had been boarded up and there was an awful lot of fires burning.

Hermione pulled up outside a house and turned off the engine. It was a nice enough house and it looked to be in a pleasant area, but the streets were too quiet for Harry's liking.

"You two stay here okay?" Hermione said, the first words any of them had said in a while. Hermione's nerves had gotten to them all. "I'll make sure they're in or see if they need anything." The boys nodded in agreement, both too tired to make much more of an effort to move. It was an action Harry would forever regret.

Ron was fanning himself lazily and Harry looking over into the distance at a helicopter flying away from a large building Harry recognised from earlier, a hotel called The Vannah, when they heard the scream. Both boys were suddenly alert and jumped out but it was too late. Hermione was on the porch of her cousin's house, lying very still, with blood staining her mangled body. She was clearly dead, but what shocked them most was the creature stood above her. It looked like an animated corpse, worse than the inferi. It had a blue hooded top on, making it look almost human, but it had incredibly sharp looking teeth and nails, stained with blood. It growled as it spotted them, and moved to pounce at them when Harry's instincts kicked in and he grabbed his wand and sent a fire spell at the creature, ducking and pulling Ron down with him as the fireball went over their heads, crashing into the car and then becoming still. Ron rushed forward to Hermione's side, staring at her, expression blank, but Harry could see the pain he was suffering. This wasn't the time for mourning though. They had to leave before anything else like the creature came again. He grabbed Ron by the shoulders and attempted to pull him up; not an easy feat considering Ron was a lot bigger than him.

"Come on Ron. We need to leave. Now! Please Ron" he begged the red head, but the boy made no sign of moving.

"Ron, please. There could be more of those things out here. We need to get to safety. Please Ron, I can't lose you as well" Harry said, choking back a sob as he admitted to himself the truth about Hermione. Luckily it seemed to have an effect on Ron, who looked at him, and nodded, tears brimming slightly in his eyes and he stood, and walked back to the car with Harry. Once they were in with the door shut, Ron banged his hands on the dashboard, head bowed low, and screamed.

"Why didn't we do anything Harry?" he whispered lowly. "Merlin, I should have escorted her or something, searched the area. It should have been me!" he growled, burying his head in his hands. Harry laid his head on his friend's shoulder, and wrapped his arm around his shaking form, allowing his own tears to cascade into Ron's shirt, not sure what he could say that would comfort the boy, or without getting too choked up himself.

They sat like that for a while, before Ron shook Harry off him, and determinedly took the wheel.

"We're going to get out of here Harry. For Hermione. And then I'm going to come back with proper supplies and make sure if any of those things are still standing, they won't be for much longer."

Harry didn't doubt Ron for a second as he started the engine and headed for The Vannah hotel. Clearly he had already formed a plan in his mind. Normally Harry was the one for drastic action, but he knew Ron had to do this to attempt to fill the hole Hermione's death had left. Harry on the other hand, simply felt like once again part of him had broken and in his eyes he was now past fixing, so instead he allowed Ron to take control while he allowed himself to cry for his fallen friends.

\---

Ron and Harry drove in silence for the entire journey. Ron had such a look on his face that Harry daren't say anything to him so he spent the drive looking out the car window. Ron was driving pretty fast, but Harry still managed to see that there were a number of inhumane looking people wandering around the streets, although none as creepy as the one which killed Hermione. The car was going at too high a speed for the creatures to do anything to them in the vehicle, but Harry didn't doubt they would come after them on foot.

Ron eventually pulled up outside The Vannah; the hotel Harry had been looking at earlier.

"I saw some helicopters leaving here earlier, so I guessed maybe they're still evacuating" Ron shrugged quietly, glancing around the area before he got out of the car. Harry did the same; better to be safe than sorry. They ran up the fire escape ladder they found on the side of the building up to the roof, although after waiting around for quite a while and seeing no sign of helicopters in the sky, they were quick to come to the conclusion that nothing was coming for them.

"So, what do we do now?" Harry asked, tilting his head up at the sky. His answer was an axe being shoved into his hands.

"We are going to find another escape centre and on the way we are going to kill as many of these monsters as we can" Ron almost growled, eyes glazing over in anger.

They took one finally look at the sky, before Ron decided to kick upon the door leading into the hotel, axe at the ready, and Harry made a mental note to stay behind Ron. He wouldn't like to get into the way of that axe.

Ron made no move in making a move, his grief almost becoming like adrenaline for him, although he did stop for a moment when he opened a door into a hallway to see it crawling with the creatures. After not even a moment's hesitation, Ron moved forward, swinging the axe wildly into the bodies of the beings. Harry soon joined in, although not as enthusiastically as Ron. When they found themselves getting overwhelmed, they would send out a fire spell with their wand to clear their path, but they boys both found it a lot more satisfying to kill the creatures themselves. They had nearly made it to an open lift, when Harry found himself being grabbed by what looked like a huge tongue, and being pulled back towards the one that owned it and he was unable to move his arms at all.

"Ron!" Harry called, desperate, but Ron was one step ahead of him and sliced right through the thing's head, causing it to die and the tongue to loosen around Harry.

"What the hell?" Harry cried incredulously, but Ron simply pulled him forward into the lift, pressing the button to take them to the ground floor. When they got there it was filled with fire and smoke. Harry cast a lumos spell so they could see their way a bit better, but it was still difficult to make their way through, especially when they were constantly on their guard.

They somehow managed to make it through, running simply on pure determination mixed with fear, and they eventually found themselves in a room with a barred door, which looked like it had been a haven for other people. There was graffiti on the walls of the room, which was a mixture of messages to loved ones, and obscure pieces such as 'not a flu' or referencing to a God. In this room they managed to find a health kit, which they decided was better to take with them; their healing spells were not that great.

They silently agreed to waste no time, and went out the other end. This time they were out in the open; the entrance to the hotel, and there were even more creatures than before. A lot of them seemed to be the same old types; creepy but not overly so, and nothing special about them, but others seemed to be able to do things to cause as much damage as possible. They met another tongued creature along the way, once again going for Harry, and Ron nearly got pounced on one that looked like the one Hermione had fatally encountered, but unfortunately for that creature, that was the one Ron was most looking forward to killing. They also had a burning green liquid spat at them by a very vile looking creature that ran away from them when they tried to kill her.

"I reckon she would have been a Slytherin" Harry joked feebly, but Ron didn't react at all. He was clearly very pained by Hermione's death and was reacting badly to it. He had always suspected something was going on between the two of them, but nothing had ever been confirmed and it was too late for them now anyway.

As they neared a gun shop, they heard a loud explosion coming from the other side of the store. Ron looked at Harry with a look to say 'Let's go that way'.

Once inside the shop, they knew if they wanted a gun they were definitely not spoilt for choice. Harry chose not to take one; he had never used one before and found it safer to stick to using the items he knew how to use. Ron on the other hand decided the more weapons the better, and chose one that fired bullets fast.

They made their way out of the store and towards some burning debris they guessed was from the explosion they heard earlier. They noticed a number of tents around, albeit empty, but they looked official.

"Maybe there's some escape thing going on around here somewhere?" Harry mused, looking around the area. Ron simply grunted in response. Harry's eyes landed on a large building in front of them; a shopping mall. Ron seemed to follow his sight, and they mutually agreed that was the place to go. They soon spotted a door similar to the one they saw earlier and both breathed a sigh of relief.

Before they could reach the door however, a sound of crying caught Harry's attention.

"Hey Ron. Somebody else is out here." Harry whispered, almost as if he daren't suggest the possibility of other's being alive, but Ron just shrugged and headed towards the door, but the crying sound was getting louder.

"No, Ron. We can't leave her. She's crying; for all we know it could be a little girl or something" Harry argued, running towards the sound of the crying. He could hear Ron behind him, but he couldn't keep Ron happy while leaving a girl behind. It wouldn't be right. He soon stopped as he saw a lone figure, head in it's hands, sobbing loudly. Before Harry could say anything to the girl, he found himself being crashed into a wall by a large armed creature, causing him to drop his wand. Ron immediately started firing at the creature, killing it, but also gaining the attention of the girl. She turned around screaming, eyes glowing red. Ron shot at her, but she lunged at him, ripping him to pieces. Harry scrambled for his wand but he couldn't find it amongst the debris, but by now it was too late. Harry stood still, eyes shut, expecting the woman to go for him, but she simply ran off screaming all the way.

Harry ran to Ron, crouching over his still form, choking back a sob at the sight of what remained. It was all his fault. He had killed his two best friends through stupidity, just as he had done with Cedric and Sirius. He screamed and threw Ron's gun away from him in anger. Fate was not on his side, and it happened to hit a car, setting off the alarm.

Almost instantly a huge crowd of creatures appeared on the horizon, heading towards the sound. He was as good as dead, and he deserved it. But then he remembered what Ron had wanted. He had wanted them to escape. He owed him that at least, especially after Ron died to save him. Plus their parents deserved to know what had happened to them. Then they could lock him up in Azkaban or St Mungos for all he cared. But he had to live first. He took off, running as fast as he could, no time for fighting. He reached the door, only to find it locked. He banged furiously on it.

"Please, please, unlock the door" he begged, almost screaming. "Please!" he cried, panic setting over him, collapsing against the door. Just as he almost gave up hope, the door opened, and he fell in to the room, and onto a warm body, and once again, he was safe for a moment.


	2. Two

Harry stayed still against the body as he heard the door shut behind him. He could feel his heart racing and head swarming.

"I told you it was just a kid" he heard a woman's voice say, and the body he was leaning against moved, causing Harry to fall down onto his knees and he buried his head in his hands. His breathing was coming out in short bursts and he could feel himself trembling.

He felt somebody crouch down beside him. "Are you alright young'un?" he heard the person ask, this time a man. Harry simply shook his head, unable to speak. "Are you hurt? Injured?"

"You haven't been bitten?" another man questioned.

When Harry shook his head again he could hear everyone in the room sigh with relief.

"I…don't understand what's going on out there. Why is this happening?" Harry's voice cracked slightly as he tried to control his emotions.

"You mean you don't know that we're in the middle of a Goddamn zombie apocalypse?" came the short reply from the man who asked him if he had been bitten. Despite seeing the creatures, hearing the word 'zombie' still came as a shock to Harry and sent a wave of fear through his body.

"N-no" he stuttered, wrapping his arms around himself to try and control his shaking. "Me and my two friends, we were out of state when we heard about this – this flu. And my friend, sh-she wanted to check on her cousins who lived here, b-but instead we just found these…"he trailed off; the memories were too fresh in his mind to allow him to carry on.

"Where are your friends now?" the woman asked him, concern lacing her words.

The question struck a chord inside of Harry and he felt himself unable to control his emotions any longer and he buried his head deeper into his hands as tears started to pour from his eyes, and he shook his head furiously.

"It was all my fault. I was stupid and got them both killed!" he sobbed, flinching slightly as he felt somebody wrap their arm around his shoulders.

"You listen to me young'un. I don't know what went on with y'all, but it's those zombies who did it. Not you. I know you pro'ably won't believe that, but that's the truth."

He nodded to show the man he had listened and taken in his words while pressing his palms against his eyes to try and block the tear flow. He had to stay strong if he wanted to get through the so called zombie apocalypse. He couldn't let his friend's deaths be meaningless, and sitting around crying wasn't going to help matters.

The room was silent while Harry tried to calm himself, and he was the one who spoke first.

"Thank you" he said, taking his hands from his face and looking at the man who had been comforting him. He gave him a small smile. It was forced but the man seemed to appreciate the gesture. He was an older man, slightly overweight and bald but bearded.

Harry looked at the others in the room as he stood up, wiping his eyes. There were two other men and one woman, all looking at him just as curiously as he was doing to them. One man looked to be in his thirties, dressed in an expensive looking white suit, while the other was a lot younger, looking to be in his early twenties at the most, and was giving him a bright smile. The woman was tall and thin and was wearing a pink t-shirt with a band logo that Harry vaguely recognised Dudley talking about.

"What are your plans now sweetie?" the woman asked, giving Harry a sympathetic look.

"I…I don't know" he replied, shaking his head. He really had to stop doing that. "I just want to go home and get away from all of this."

"You should come with us!" the younger man said, his voice carrying a heavy Southern accent. "We're hopin' to get evacuated from this mall and I bet then you could find a way home safely."

"Yeah, you shouldn't be out there alone" the woman added.

"I don't want to intrude" Harry shrugged, although the woman did have a point; he didn't think he would stand much chance out there alone.

"You won't be, and besides, I wouldn't feel right leaving you alone behind" she replied, the men nodding in agreement with her.

"You don't have a gun on you" the man in the suit stated suddenly, looking slightly surprised.

"I umm, don't know how to shoot one" he admitted, and a moment later he had a gun shoved in his hands.

"I suggest you learn then" the man continued. "I don't know how you got this far without one but that luck won't take you much further. I'm sure you know which way to hold it, right kid?" Harry nodded. "Well then, aim it towards the middle of the wall back there and pull the trigger." He had pointed to a black wall at the back of the room. The room itself was pretty long so Harry didn't feel too concerned about the bullet hitting anyone by mistake.

He was pretty good at aiming; having cast spells for seven years of his life meant he had to be, but he wasn't prepared for the force of the weapon. His hands jerked and he stumbled backwards slightly, causing the bullet to fly upwards. Not one to be defeated, he re-aimed and pulled the trigger once again, this time prepared for it. He managed to steady himself enough for the bullet to go just slightly up from where he was aiming. He tried once more, this time managing to keep on target. Feeling exhilarated from the feeling, he carried on firing, the power giving him relief from the depressing thoughts in his mind. He stopped when he felt an arm on his shoulder.

"And this is why in any other circumstances children should not be given guns" the man said almost bitterly, but he got the feeling the man was inwardly impressed.

"Aw, I remember the firs' time I fired a gun" the Southerner said happily. "It was good but nothin' is better than killing these sons of bitches" he grinned at Harry. The guy's happiness was almost contagious. He imagined it would have put a smile on his face if he hadn't just witnessed his best friends dying.

"So can we move on now then? This place seems too quiet as it is and I don't want to miss another evacuation" the man in the suit said. He was the opposite to the younger man, full of bitterness, but maybe being in a zombie apocalypse affected him worse than the others.

"Agreed" the larger man nodded, throwing Harry a health pack and flashlight. "You'll need them."

"Thank you."

"It's Coach by the way. My name is Coach" said the larger man smiling.

"I'm Rochelle" the woman chipped in. "And this happy man here is Nick" she said gesturing at the man in the suit who simply glared at her.

"I'm Ellis" the Southerner smiled. Harry had never known anyone to smile so much in a short space of time. "Some people call me El, but I don' like that 'cause it sounds like a girl's name, but I don' mind whether you wanna call me El or Ellis. "

"I'm Harry" he responded, forcing a smile at them all.

"Well then Harry. Are you ready to kill some zombie bitches?" Coach said, unlocking the door at the other side of the room.

With an encouraging smile from Rochelle and Ellis, Harry followed Coach and Nick out of the room and into the inside of what was once a clothing store. As soon as he stepped out he could see the place was full of zombies, who all turned to look at them as they moved forward and then started to run towards them growling. The others immediately started firing, causing the creatures to fall down dead.

'What the heck?' Harry mused to himself and fired a shot at a zombie. He was pleased when it hit the creature and injured it, although not killing it, so he shot some more. He had to admit that Ellis was right; there was something fun about killing zombies.

"Hunter around" he heard Rochelle say as a different sort of growling came from nearby. This growling sounded more vicious, and a sort of screeching came every so often.

"What's a Hunter?" he whispered loudly at Ellis.

"One o'them" he replied, pointing at a hooded zombie with his gun, shooting it dead before it could land on Rochelle. Harry recognised it as the one which had killed Hermione. "You get your normal zombies, but then you got your special ones which ain't as common but there are still enough of them to be a problem. I'll tell ya about 'em as we find 'em. Like the Hunter. That one pounces and jumps real high. Real sharp claws too. "

"Can you not walk and talk at the same time Overalls?" Nick hissed at them, ushering them forward. Ellis pulled a face at Nick, but obeyed the man nonetheless.

They headed up an escalator taking them to the first floor of the shop. There were empty tables and mannequins decorating the floor, but the clothes that were strewn all over, the smashed windows and the corpses suggested this was not any old shop in a normal mall. He could see the store's security gate part way shut. It looked like security had tried to be quick in securing the area but were not quick enough. Either that or the zombies had managed to get it open somehow.

The sound of crying quickly caught his attention.

"The crying girl's around. Lights off" Coach hissed at them.

"Wh-why do we need lights off?" Harry stuttered, images of Ron and the crying girl coming back to him, flashing in front of his mind.

"We call her the Witch" Rochelle answered. "She leaves you alone if you don't annoy her but if you do anything to startle her she will attack. She doesn't look it but she's incredibly strong."

"She don' like lights, or people walkin' near 'er" Ellis continued, counting on his fingers as he spoke. "Loud noises spook 'er too. And trust me; you do not wanna set 'er on fire."

"So I set up nearly everything to make her go for Ron" Harry whispered, more to himself in shock. He could feel the panic setting back in. 'Do not panic Harry' he thought to himself. 'You'll just get these people killed if you do. You don't need any more blood on your hands.'

He felt somebody push him forward. He wasn't even aware he had stopped.

"Is she the one who killed your friends?" Rochelle asked concerned, as she casually shot a couple of zombies who had noticed them.

"Ju-just Ron. One of those Hunter things got Hermione." He held his gun tighter in his hands. "Does she not die in one shot?"

"Only in certain circumstances. Those circumstances you do not have so don't go doing anything stupid kid. She's more likely to kill you" Nick replied. "Look, she's over there" he said pointing to the walking, sobbing female, who was just outside of the security gate Harry noticed earlier.

Luckily for them, she seemed to double back on herself, leaving them a path to go down away from her. They hurried past her, and down towards another escalator leading downstairs. It led them into a small pit sort of area which Harry saw no point for, but who was he to question the mall designers?

"Oh man, not the food court!" Coach moaned as he saw what remained of the food court area. There was certainly nowhere they'd be able to get anything to eat. The stalls and the restaurants were all boarded up, while the tables and chairs were lying across the floor. Of course the added presence of zombies made it even more dramatic.

Before Harry could even consider shooting any of the creatures he suddenly found himself in a lot of pain, almost as if he was burning. He screeched and jumped up, noticing a green pool of acid around the floor.

"Spitter!" Coach yelled, shooting an ugly, long-necked woman right in the head.

"Good shot Coach" Nick complimented.

"That was a Spitter" Ellis explained to Harry quietly as they shot the zombies which had been alerted by Harry's screaming. "She spits some sorta goo shit out and it hurts like hell. I guess you figured that out for yer self though, huh?"

"Boomer!" Rochelle called, punching a fat zombie and causing it to stumble back. A shot went into it and it exploded, causing something green to spew out.

"An' that was a Boomer. If they throw up on you it attracts a horde. You know, lots'o' zombies? But they explode if you shoot 'em which is pretty fun" Ellis grinned.

"Just make sure you don't shoot them while they're stood next to you. No matter how fun it might seem" Nick added, rolling his eyes at Ellis.

"Yep, I had gotta admit that isn't a great idea" Ellis said, rubbing the back of his neck.

The group hurried up another escalator back onto the first floor and out of the food court. This area was pretty much the same as the rest of the mall: boarded up shops, security fences which had been scattered around and nobody else around other than the zombies. The fences, Harry noticed, had blocked off a lot of their way. In fact Harry could see no way to go.

"It looks like there's a way out over there" Rochelle said pointing to the other side of the walkway and towards a doorframe which looked like the door had come off its hinges at the top.

They took out the zombies which were wandering the floor. Harry found that so far they didn't seem to be struggling too badly. The way the others were acting however; tensed up and on edge, suggested there was something to be worried about.

A giggling sound suddenly came from nearby. It wasn't a happy sort of giggling noise, more like a maniacal laugh.

"One of them back humpers is around" Ellis muttered, raising his gun defensively.

A coughing noise from behind them made Harry whip around, although Ellis' shouts made him turn back around in time for him to see a hunchbacked little creature jump onto Ellis' head and steer him away from the group.

Before Harry could even debate whether to risk shooting the zombie, not wanting to miss and hit Ellis, he felt his arms and chest suddenly constricted by a tentacle he remembered from earlier. He tried desperately to reach his gun as he was pulled backwards towards the zombie.

"Help!" he cried, gaining Nicks' attention who ran to help him as Coach and Rochelle helped Ellis.

Nick shot over Harry's head, killing the zombie, creating a cloud of smoke and causing the tongue to loosen.

"That was a Smoker" Nick explained as he pulled the tongues off Harry's body. You've seen first hand what they do now. And Ellis' buddy, that was a Jockey. He likes to think of us as his horses. I wouldn't worry too much about them though. They just love Ellis" he smirked.

He motioned for Harry to get up and follow him towards the others.

"You alright? Rochelle asked him, looking him over for any injuries.

"'M'fine" Harry replied, glancing over at Ellis who looked to be fine and seemed more bothered about adjusting his hat.

"Y'all ready to move on now?" Coach asked as he glanced around nervously.

The others nodded and they headed over to the doorframe, walking up what was left of the door and into a corridor which seemed to be for the mall restrooms and storage rooms for the staff. They searched the rooms for the supplies, managing to find some fresh ammo.

They headed down the corridor which was thankfully for the most part zombie free. The enclosed space didn't provide much cover.

They found they were only able to take a left turn at the end, so they were made to walk down yet another corridor, this one containing even more storage rooms for the employees. The place was starting to feel quite repetitive and Harry wondered if they would ever find their way out of the corridor maze.

They went into one of the rooms, managing to find some pain pills, which Coach informed him could come in very handy as a quick pain killer, but health kits were better used for more permanent healing.

They discovered a door leading into a toy shop, the toys scattered all over the floor and off the shelves. Luckily the windows hadn't been boarded up.

"Don't get too excited now Harry. A gun is more important than a teddy bear" Nick said sarcastically, smirking at him. All the smirking he did reminded him a lot of Draco Malfoy. If anything, Nick could easily be a darker haired and older version of the Slytherin.

"How old do you think I am exactly?" he asked the man, quirking an eyebrow.

"I don't know. Like twelve?"

Harry opened his mouth to respond angrily when Nick cut him off before he could say anything.

"We're gonna have to shoot through those windows to get out and I just bet it's gonna be alarmed."

"I know where the security room is" Ellis exclaimed excitedly, happy at the thought of knowing something the others didn't. "It's righ' on the top floor."

"How'd you know that exactly?" Harry asked interestedly.

"Oh, well this one time, me and my buddy Keith were shoppin' but Keith had lost his wallet and he saw this shirt that he really liked, so -"the Southerner started.

"We don' have time for this Ellis. Let's shoot the window and you lead us the right way, okay?" interrupted Coach.

They braced themselves as Nick raised his gun and shot a single bullet, shattering the glass and, as expected, a high pitched alarm rang out.

"Go, go, go!" Ellis called, all of them running forward and jumping over the shattered glass.

They found themselves confronted with a huge horde of zombies, all of them rushing towards them, growling and teeth barred.

"Ah shit" Harry muttered to himself as he eyed up all of the creatures.

"To the escalator!" Ellis called, leading them across the floor, firing his gun crazily as he ran.

The whole situation seemed to be going over Harry's head. There was running and zombies, bullets and claws. They were completely outnumbered and he could feel his heart racing as he shot as many of the zombies as he could. They were completely surrounding them, and he could feel their claws scratching his skin.

"Chase this you bastards!" he heard Coach yell, throwing a flashing, beeping stick away from them. The zombies ran to the item, all crowding around it, before it exploded, causing body parts to go flying all over.

The alarm was attracting more zombies however, almost like an endless stream. They had just started to bound up the escalator when they heard a growl and Rochelle scream.

Harry turned to see a Hunter on her, and without thinking he shot the zombie in the head, causing it to jump off her. He shot once more and it fell dead.

Rochelle offered her thanks and they joined the others at the top.

"It's just down there" Ellis shouted, pointing to a room down from them. It should have been an easy feat for them to get to, that is if there wasn't a zombie army on their tail.

They broke into a run, the sooner the alarm went off the better. They shot and punched their way through the horde, Nick having managed to find a nightstick to beat the monsters with.

Out of nowhere a Boomer came and vomited on Harry, Nick and Rochelle, covering them in a gooey liquid and blinding their vision. Someone pulled him back towards the wall, and he felt Nick and Rochelle on either side of him.

Nick stood slightly in front, waving his nightstick wildly, while Rochelle and Harry punched the zombies away from them as Coach and Ellis shot at them until their vision had cleared. Harry had never felt such terrified adrenaline inside of him, and they sprinted their way to the security room.

A Smoker was inside waiting for them, but Coach shot it dead just as its tongue came out.

Ellis practically leapt over to the box where the alarm was sounding from and set about shutting it down while the others covered him.

The alarm went silent, although Harry could still hear it ringing inside of his head.

They took care of the remaining zombies, but fortunately shutting off the alarm meant that no more were getting attracted to the sound.

"Cover me guys. I need to heal" Nick said, setting about with his health kit. Harry watched idly as Nick wrapped bandages around his wounds. He hoped he didn't mess it up when it came to healing himself.

They stopped for a moment to catch their breath before Nick ushered them through the door on the other side of the room. It led them down a staircase and into yet another corridor. There was only a couple of zombies lingering and after what they had just been though it seemed like nothing. They headed towards a door at the end of the stretch.

They stepped into a large room, when a loud roar caught their attention. Somebody pulled him down just as a large piece of what looked like part of the floor came flying over their heads.

He looked up and immediately wished he hadn't.

"Oh, fuck me!" he exclaimed.

The zombie in front of them was much larger than any of the other zombies, it even looked to be bigger than Hagrid. It was certainly wider. He had seen his share of monstrous creatures at Hogwarts, but this looked to be one of the worst.

The others started pounding all of their bullets into the monster, giving Harry the idea to do the same. Ellis grabbed his arm and pulled him back towards the corridor, both shooting single handedly. The group ran backwards, all the while shooting, only pausing to duck when the creature ripped up the floor and threw it at them.

The zombie was fast and showed no sign of slowing. Eventually it fell to the ground, not after using over half of their ammo. Harry sincerely hoped they wouldn't run into that zombie again.

"What the hell was that?" Harry asked, clutching his hand to his chest as he panted. He didn't normally use muggle curses but the whole situation had set him off, and with good reason.

"That would be a Tank" Rochelle answered, a grim look on her face. "I wouldn't like to think what could happen if you got on the wrong side of its punches."

The others murmured in agreement, and silently they agreed to move forward.

They headed into the room which they now saw held a large white tent and opened out into the main shopping area of the mall.

"Seems too quiet if you ask me" Coach muttered, looking around.

They moved forward into the shopping area and stopped dead in their tracks. There had been an evacuation centre, but the place was now overrun. A large number of zombies were swarmed around the place, the bodies of two people in infection control suits were at the tables and there was no other sign of life.

The tension in the air was thick between them as they could sense each others reaction to the scene.

"Great. This is just freaking great. Remind me never to trust CEDA again" Nick growled, angrily shooting at the zombies around them.

"What do we do now?" Rochelle inquired, her eyes sweeping the place for an escape.

"I guess we gotta find our own way outta this place" Ellis answered, heading forward and shooting at the same time.

The group followed behind him, each of them looking for another way out.

"Guess we're goin' up" Ellis called, gesturing at the escalator leading down which was blocked off with debris.

As they reached the top, a zombie with one extremely large arm came rushing towards them, crashing into Coach and picking him up before smashing him into the ground.

They shot the creature; it was pretty strong although compared to the Tank it wasn't much, and it soon died.

"That was a Charger" Nick explained. "I think we've covered all the special infected that we know of now." Personally Harry wished they had stopped after the Hunter.

"Hey look!" Ellis called excitedly. "A safe room!"

They headed eagerly towards the room. It wouldn't give them a way out of the mall, but at least the steel doors would keep them safe for some time while they tried to get their thoughts together.

They unconsciously sped up on the last stretch before the safe room, the tension considerably lightening as the doors shut behind them.

"Well now" Coach stated looking at them all. "It's time to find our way out of this Goddamn mall."


	3. Three

The safe room that the group found themselves in wasn't much. There was a brick wall on the side that they had just come from, while the opposite wall and the sides seemed to be made out of wood. Whether it had been made by CEDA they didn't know. CEDA, as Coach explained to him, was the 'Civil Emergency and Defence Agency'. Nick went on further saying that they were entirely useless. From what Harry had seen of them, he had to agree.

Ellis in the meantime had been going on about a race car driver named Jimmy Gibbs Jr. who, according to a poster that was hung in the room, was supposed to have been in the mall for autograph signing and photos with his car. It turned out he was a local hero, and Ellis and Coach were both big fans. Typically Ellis' excited rambling was starting to piss Nick off.

"Can we get a move on now? I'm getting tired of hearing 'Jimmy Gibbs this' and 'Jimmy Gibbs that'" the man muttered, resting his forehead against the wooden wall.

"We don't know what we're doing yet. What's the good in leaving?" Rochelle argued, Coach nodding in agreement.

"Well we aren't getting anywhere, are we? And our plans could all change once we see what's on the other side of this door. Who knows what's out there?" Nick pointed out, causing Rochelle to frown.

"I agree with Nick" Harry interrupted. He was getting sick of being in the safe room. They needed to get a move on if they wanted to get out before it got dark, if it hadn't already. "We could get some ideas if we know what we're working with."

"Nice to know I'm not the only one here with a brain" Nick said, and coming from the suited man, that was almost a compliment.

"Hey, I agree with ya Nick" Ellis cut in. "I was just looking at this poster. It made me think-"

"Ellis, I don't care" Nick sighed, not wanting to listen to the excited man. "But that's three against one, so I guess we're leaving."

They double checked they all had fully loaded guns and health kits before setting off and out of the room, although Coach did this rather reluctantly. The man came across as liking to be in charge, but Harry thought it was a good sign that he listened to others once in a while as well.

The door opened into what was yet another corridor, and even with having been at boarding school for seven years, he had never been as sick of them as he was now, but it was only short and it led out back into the main atrium of the mall.

They were on the top floor, and where they were seemed to have a lot of wooden supports and other building materials around. The only option was to go into a lift and go down.

They all crowded in, deciding to wait a moment before pressing the button. The lift was glass on the sides, and they could see the bottom floor of the atrium. It was typical mall layout, although there seemed to be quite a lot of zombies around, more so than the other areas they had been in. Then Harry's eyes landed on something, and Ellis must have seen the same thing as he cheered under his breath. There, standing on a slight platform, was the racing car Harry recognised from the poster.

"Oh I jus' knew Jimmy Gibbs was gonna save us' the Southerner grinned. "Here's my idea. I was thinking we could jus' take the stock car and we coul' drive ourselves down ta New Orleans. That map said it were the only place left so we may as well head there."

Harry didn't know what map they were talking about, but he wasn't going to argue. Before Hermione had changed their plans, they had planned to visit New Orleans. The city had a large magical community, a lot of which was blended in with the muggle areas, even if the muggles themselves didn't know it. If he could get there he was sure he could find something that would be of help to them.

"That ain't that bad an idea!" Coach agreed with Ellis as well, seemingly happy they finally had a plan.

"Where are we going to get gas from to fill it up?" Nick questioned. "I doubt they'd put a fully gassed car of some Southern idol right in the middle of a mall for anyone to drive away in."

"I noticed down on the ground floor that there was a car shop or something. Who knows? There may be some canisters of gas in there?" Rochelle said, looking down to the ground floor intently.

Her answer was Nick pressing the button to take them to the bottom.

The lift seemed to move painfully slow, giving zombies more chance to notice the movement.

"Looks like we're gonna have a welcoming committee" Coach growled. "Guns at the ready people."

The doors opened and almost instantly the zombies were running at them. They shot wildly at the creatures, causing the group to disperse and leave them a way through. Rochelle led them through to the store she had seen, conveniently placed not too far from the car. It could be ran at in under a minute. The shop amazingly didn't look like it had been ransacked, but it was certainly deserted. Unfortunatley the reason it hadn't been ransacked was because the door and windows were entirely boarded up, save for a small hole.

"Rochelle, y'all be able to fit in there won't you?" Coach asked the woman, who eyed up the hole, sizing it up.

"Just about" she nodded. She moved over and peeked through the hole, shining her torch across the room.

"Hey guys. We're in luck!" She turned and grinned. "There is a load of gas canisters at the back."

"We'll take as many as we need then" Coach said, a smile breaking onto his face as well.

"Hey kid" Nick said, nudging him in the shoulder. "You're small. How about you go in and give Rochelle a hand? Then you can pass them out to us and we'll all take a couple over to the car."

Harry scowled at being called small. He admittedly had been the shortest guy in his year at school, but he was taller than Rochelle, and she was pretty tall. Ellis was only an inch or two taller than he was. Nick and Coach were clearly just overly tall.

It was no wonder Nick treated him like a child. Here they were trying to escape a mall and all he could think about was height differences. He decided it was best if he just did what Nick had suggested and moved to crawl through the hole into the shop. He didn't get through it as easily as Rochelle but he doubted the others would have been able to get in at all.

The shop inside was a mess, with car accessories and parts scattered across the floor. Harry wasn't too sure why they had gas canisters inside of the shop; he had always thought cars had to go to stations to be filled up, but he suspected the shop might have got some in stock for the panic buyers. Luckily for them it seemed the infection had spread too quickly for too much panic buying to happen.

Harry and Rochelle each grabbed a couple of cans and passed them out to Ellis, who was combining taking cans off them and shooting zombies. Nick had managed to find a sniper rifle from somewhere, possibly one of the bodies lying around, and was shooting into the distance, while Coach concentrated on the nearby zombies.

In the end they managed to quickly get eight canisters to Ellis, who told them that should be more than enough. Coach, Rochelle and Harry each grabbed two cans, while Ellis and Nick took one each, using their other hand to take out the zombies around them, while also allowing them to make the trip in one go. The sooner they got the car filled up the better.

Ellis immediately started to pour the canisters into the car. He clearly seemed to know what he was doing. The others covered him as the boy's excitement grew for getting closer and closer to driving his idol's car.

Just as Harry had been thinking the whole situation was too easy, and Ellis was emptying the last canister into the car, Harry heard a roaring sound he would recognise from anywhere. A Tank.

The others had noticed the sound too, and all were looking frantically to see where the Tank was. With all the debris it provided the Tank some cover and also some easy to grab rocks to throw at them.

Ellis urged the canister to pour faster, but just as he seemed to have filled it, a large debris piece flew over them, managing to hit Nick and send him flying quite a way backwards, crashing sideways into a wall. Almost instantly the Tank was there, heading towards the suited man.

"Start the engine Ellis! Now!" Coach yelled over to the Southerner, who, fearing Coach's wrath, obeyed, sitting himself behind the wheel but turning to shoot at the Tank out of the window.

Coach and Rochelle were firing madly at the Tank but it seemed to be doing no good, and the creature was nearing closer and closer to Nick, another piece of debris being raised above his head, ready to be thrown.

Without even thinking about what he was doing, Harry dashed forward, running as fast as he could towards the man. He could hear the others calling him but he ignored them, focused entirely on Nick.

He leapt at him and knocked him sideways, just in time to avoid the rock that would have otherwise smashed his head in. He grabbed the arm of the dazed man and attempted to yank him up. Nick seemed to get the hint and he allowed Harry to drag him to the car.

The Tank had been momentarily confused by the man who had appeared to vanish, but he was close on their tails.

"Get in the car!" Harry called to the others as he pulled Nick as fast as he could.

After what seemed like an eternity they finally reached the vehicle, and he pushed Nick inside it, jumping in behind him, just as a rock flew past him. He slammed the door shut and Ellis pushed down hard on the pedal, causing the car to go speeding off of the platform, and through the glass doors, out of the mall and away from the Tank.

The atmosphere in the car suddenly became a whole lot lighter as the tension and the fear seemed to leave all of them.

"Harry…" Nick began, turning towards the wizard, "That was one of the most stupid, idiotic and reckless things I have ever seen anybody do-but it meant that I'm still alive. So, what I'm trying to say is thank you."

Nick looked slightly uncomfortable at putting his thanks into words, but he could see the gratitude in the man's eyes, plus he had used Harry's given name, so he must have gained some respect for the teenager.

He just shook his head and smiled at the older man.

"I wasn't going to stand by and watch you get crushed. I know I'm fast so I know I had a chance…" he trailed off unsure what to say. His hero complex, as some had called it, had kicked in. It wasn't the first time he had acted with thinking, and it probably wouldn't be the last. "How are you though? The Tank knocked you quite far" he asked Nick, concerned.

"I've felt better. He got my side mostly" he said, gesturing to the side of him that was next to Rochelle. Rochelle scooted over at that to give him more room, and then offered Nick some pain pills.

Nick seemed to fall silent after that, and Harry had a look out of the window.

Ellis seemed to be driving as fast as he could manage, and they were whirling past the infested streets of Savannah. They were going at too quick a speed to be bothered by the zombies, allowing them a safe ride out of the city.

The car itself was pretty cramped inside. Ellis and Coach were sat in the front, with the other three in the back. The backseat wasn't much, and Harry found he was pressed closely to Nick as he was avoiding contact with Rochelle on his bad side. He sighed and laid his head onto Nick's shoulder in an attempt to feel slightly more comfortable. He glanced up at the man when he heard him mumble something.

"Am I hurting you?" he asked.

"No" came the short answer, and Nick for a moment looked like he regretted what he said. He had probably realised saying yes would have guaranteed Harry to move. "It's just, this suit cost me $3000. I don't want it creasing."

Harry raised an eyebrow and he heard the others snigger.

"Erm Nick. I hate to break it to you but I think creasing is the least of your worries. Unless you think zombie guts are in style?" Rochelle laughed, covering her mouth with her hand.

Nick didn't answer her, which Harry took as a signal to make himself more comfortable. Ellis was chatting away quietly to Coach in the front, who didn't seem to be listening to the driver, not that Ellis seemed to mind. Harry could feel his mind shutting off when Rochelle's voice caught his attention.

"Hey Harry. Can I ask you something?" the woman asked, a serious look on her face.

Harry nodded.

"It's just, I couldn't help but notice you have an English accent. Did you move here or were you here on vacation?"

The whole car seemed to go silent as everyone tuned in to hear the answer. Harry immediately knew what they were getting at.

"I was here on holiday. We flew to LA and pretty much the next day reports started coming in. I don't know if airports are still running" he answered, not surprised when he heard the sighs of disappointment.

He brushed it aside and felt the exhaustion kicking in. He buried his face deep into Nick's shoulder and sleep overcame him.

\---

He didn't know how long he had been out but somebody nudging him woke him up. He blinked up at Nick sleepily.

"Wha?" He hated being woken up by people. He had had enough of that with the Dursleys.

"Can you switch seats with Coach? He wants to get some sleep" came the reply.

He nodded. He didn't know how they would be comfortable with Coach in the back. He was a large man, although at the same time he seemed to be one of the fittest among the group. But he suspected that Nick especially would rather be squashed than be in the front with Ellis, who showed no signs of wanting to be quiet. He was talking in a low tone as to not disturb the people in the back, but he was sure in the front seat it was loud enough.

They were out of the city now, and from what he could see of the outside it seemed pretty much deserted.

"Do ya think it's safe to pull over now?" Ellis asked, peering outside as much as he could.

"Think so" Coach replied, unbuckling his seat belt.

As none of them wanted to leave the car, it made the situation slightly awkward. Harry had to move across Nick and onto Rochelle's lap to make room for Coach to get through. That wouldn't have been too bad had Nick not been injured and the car not been small. After Coach had gotten settled, Harry had to crawl across them all again, making care not to knock Nick's side, and then slide into the front.

They somehow managed the feat without any awkwardness or attracting the attention of anything that may have been out there and soon they were once again on the way, the sound of Coach snoring softly filling the car.

"Aren't you tired?" Harry whispered to Ellis.

"Nope. I don' tend'ta sleep much" Ellis answered, voice low. He was definitely louder up front, not that Harry minded. The guy's optimism drew Harry into him. "Ya know, I still can' believe I'm drivin' the car that belonged to Jimmy Gibbs Junior! That guy was such a legend. Hey! I can't believe I'm saying this but if you wanna have a go at drivin' just lemme know."

"I don't know how to drive" Harry answered honestly. He wouldn't have a clue where to begin.

"Seriously?" Ellis said, shock showing on his face. "I thought you were at least sixteen. That's when I 'ficially learnt how to drive, back in Drivers Ed' Class."

"I'm eighteen-" Harry began, when a scoff from the back made him stop.

"Yeah right. You don't have to lie about your age, just in case we think we'll take your gun off you for being underage. I'm not legally allowed a gun either" Nick said. Harry thought he had been sleeping.

"No. I've been eighteen since July. We didn't have Drivers Ed' classes and I never got round to learning privately" he explained, and Ellis nodded to show he was listening.

"Oh, I get ya" he smiled. "Do ya know anything about cars at all then?"

Harry shook his head, and Ellis nearly stopped the car in shock.

"Man, what have you been doin'? When I was your age all I did was around cars."

" Er, a bit of sports, bit of studying. I went to a boarding school in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't much to do at all." Harry answered, inwardly wincing at the thought of Hogwarts. He hadn't realised he'd miss it so much.

"Eugh, boarding school" Ellis said, pulling a face. "I hated school. Couldn' wait ta leave. I'd have hated it if I had to live there as well. Have you graduated yet?"

"Yeah, back in June. I was supposed to have been going to study to be a hea-doctor but I don't know if that's gonna happen now." He had changed his plans for his future in his seventh year. He had decided he was fed up of fighting the bad guys, and instead wanting to work on saving people, especially seeing as he had caused the deaths of so many. "I guess it would have helped if I had done some studying before this happened. Could have come in handy" he laughed weakly.

"Ah, I reckon you're gonna be plenty qualified once you get back home. Sometimes I wish I had been clever enough to go to college, but my grades weren't great. They weren't even good really. I left school at eighteen and went and set up an auto shop with my buddies, Keith and Dave. Been doing that for the last five years."

Doing maths in his head, Harry worked out Ellis was twenty three. That was five years on him. The others were clearly older than the two of them, which made Harry the youngest of the group. Harry hated to be treated like a child. He had been through enough with Voldemort to make him an adult in his eyes, and in the eyes of the wizarding world, but in the muggle world, he had nothing to prove he wasn't young and stupid. Ellis seemed to treat him as an equal, although Harry had to admit the Southerner was pretty childish himself. Coach treated him like some of his professors at school had, while Rochelle seemed to baby him slightly. Nick didn't seem to have much respect for him at all, only gaining some after he had saved him, but then again Nick didn't seem to appreciate any of them.

He could feel himself drifting off again, and Ellis seemed to trail off from what he was saying.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to ignore you. I'm just super tired" he muttered to the driver, who quickly turned and flashed him a bright smile, before turning his attention back to the road.

"Don't worry Har. May as well get some sleep in while you can."

And once again, Harry settled into an uneasy sleep.


	4. Four

Harry was awoken by a lot of movement going on around him. He noticed the car had stopped. Ellis flashed him a goofy grin as he settled down in the driver's seat.

"Sorry, didn't mean ta wake ya" he apologised. "Rochelle forced me ta get a bit of sleep and she took over drivin' for a bit."

"How long have we been on the road now?" Harry asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Nearin' to four hours" Ellis answered, starting the engine again. "We should be comin' up ta Rayford soon so we'll all need to be on alert for zombies."

"Do any of you want to sit up front now?" Harry asked, turning to the others cramped in the back. "I feel selfish hogging the roomy seat."

The others declined him politely.

"Are you sure Nick? Are you still hurting?" he asked the man, concerned.

"I'm fine. A bit achy still but I've had worse" Nick answered, and he did seem better than he had done the last time Harry had seen him.

He turned back to Ellis who was rubbing his hands up and down on the steering wheel as though he had terribly missed driving. Knowing Ellis that was probably true.

"Kid, can I ask you something?" Nick said, leaning forward.

"I guess" Harry replied.

"Well I hadn't noticed before because your hair was covering it, but what's up with that scar on your forehead? I saw it when you turned around just then."

"Oh, are you on about that lightning shape one? That looks awesome!" Ellis grinned.

Rochelle and Coach looked just as intrigued. Typical how even around muggles he couldn't avoid his scar being looked at and talked about. He decided to go with the story that his aunt and uncle had told him when he was a child.

"Um, car crash when I was a baby. I don't remember much about it" he explained, wringing his hands together nervously.

"Are you sure? You don't sound it" Nick said. Perhaps that lie only worked on children.

"How does a car crash cause a scar that shape anyway?" Rochelle asked, intrigued.

"I, um, like I said, I was a baby. I don't know what caused the shape."

"What about the other passengers?" Coach said. They all seemed to want a better answer out of him.

"They died" he answered sadly. Luckily they got the hint to not ask anymore questions about it after that.

He sighed and rested his head against the window, shutting his eyes but not trying to sleep. Thinking of his parents made him think of all the others he had lost; Sirius and Dumbledore. Ron and Hermione. He couldn't let his emotions get the better of him, not yet at least. He had to survive the apocalypse before he could mourn. He hoped at the very least the infection would not spread to England. Even if they wouldn't be sick, his friends there would still have to try and protect themselves against all of the monsters. He shuddered at the thought of anything happening to his Godson, Teddy.

He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. The people around him had likely lost a lot of their friends and family to the infection and they were still going strong. He decided it better to change the subject. Ellis was good with conversation and his cheerful attitude lifted the atmosphere.

"So" he started, turning back to the group. "Have any of you been to New Orleans before?"

To his surprise all of men nodded.

"My wife had family there" Coach said, a hint of sadness to his voice. "She passed away a couple of years ago and I've not been back since. Reckon it'll be real different now."

"I've been a few times. I travel around a lot" Nick continued the answer while not really paying attention to the conversation.

"Me and my buddy Keith went once" Ellis grinned. "It was awesome. It was Mardi Gras when we went and-"

"Ellis. I do not want to hear about your drunken revelry" Nick muttered darkly.

Harry thought for a moment before asking his next question. It could be perceived as weird but then he thought he had nothing to lose.

"Did any of you go into those er, magic type shops?" he asked while glancing at the other's reactions. Nick typically looked like he had never heard of anything so stupid, while Rochelle and Coach shook their heads but didn't seem to look at him weirdly.

Ellis broke into yet another smile. "I went to a couple. Saw a psychic too. She said I was gonna fall in love with somebody I wouldn' expect but she mentioned nothin' about zombies. Hey! I wonder if they have zombie fighting shit!"

"That's what I was thinking" Harry admitted. He was thinking more in the lines of magical defence but Ellis summed it up generally.

"What are you two? Morons?" Nick said angrily. "All we need is guns. No bullshit junk."

Harry rolled his eyes. If only Nick knew, that would wipe the smug look off his face.

"Leave them alone Nick" Rochelle defended the younger ones, glaring the suited man down.

"Hell, I didn't believe in zombies until now. Who knows? Maybe there is some magic in the world" Coach agreed.

Nick opened his mouth to say something but Harry hushed him. They were coming up to the outskirts of a city; a place more likely to be teaming with zombies. They should be safe driving in a car at high speeds but there was more likely to be debris on the roads to block them than on the highway.

The city, Rayford, did indeed seem to be in ruins. There were abandoned cars on the roads, and buildings with smashed in doors and windows. It had suffered more than Savannah had, but then again Savannah had only just been hit when Harry was there; the city could be even worse now.

They managed to drive through the city easy enough. Harry, Coach and Rochelle had to shoot out of the windows at one point when a small horde came towards them, just as an extra defence, but they got through without taking any damage.

They were now however at a point where they could really see no way out. They had to cross a bridge to get across a river, and then it was back to the outskirts and onto the highway. It should have been simple enough had the bridge not been raised up.

The roads were pretty much a one way system, the debris dictating which ways they could go, and the bridge was their only option out of the city.

They had a look round from the car before getting out and staring at the bridge as though that would somehow move it.

It was then Harry noticed a figure moving towards them on top of the bridge.

Nick raised his gun but Harry put a hand on his arm to stop him shooting. The figure itself was holding a gun. He had never seen a zombie do that.

"I think it's a human" he said softly.

They waited as the figure approached them. It was a man, definitely human. He was bearded and dressed in biker gear, including a leather vest. He noticed Rochelle blushing slightly as she eyed him up. The biker was looking at Rochelle just as interestedly.

"Hello down there. I'm Francis" he called.

"Hi there Francis. I'm Rochelle" Rochelle replied, giggling slightly. Nick rolled his eyes and muttered 'women'. "We need to get across to the other side. Do you mind helping us lower the bridge?"

"Sorry. Can't. We've got an injured man up here with us. If you can get across there's a generator that needs filling up. We could cover you then. That's the best I can offer. Sorry Miss."

Rochelle's face softened at his apology. Nick however wasn't going to take the rejection so easily.

"Listen grease bag, just do it for us and save us the job. We've got an old man and a little boy with us" Nick yelled, holding onto Harry's shoulders, while Coach slapped the suited man round the head.

"Nick! Stop it!" Rochelle muttered angrily. "We'll do that then Francis. Thank you" she called back to the biker, who winked at her. Ellis grinned and gave Rochelle a look which made her look away blushing.

Harry brushed Nick off him and glanced up at the sign above them.

"There's an under the river tour here. That could get us across" he stated. The sign made out that it was the best tourist attraction Rayford had to offer.

"How thrilling" Nick said, shooting a zombie in the distance.

"Well it can get us across. We're going" Coach said, finalising the decision for the group. Rochelle waved bye to Francis and they were on their way.

They headed through a park area, which could have been very pretty with its paved flooring and bright greenery. The cars and buses crashed through it ruined the picture however. It had started raining as well, and Harry could feel the cold wetness against his skin.

Before they had gone on holiday Hermione had dragged Harry shopping, enlisting Ginny and Draco Malfoy's help. Since the end of the war, when Narcissa and Lucius had turned their backs on the Dark Lord, the family had been living at Grimmauld Place, and they had since had a civil relationship. Draco was very good when it came to style so he was quickly dragged out with them.

Harry was now wearing one of Draco's finds; skinny jeans, converse trainers and a plain, tight fitting white t-shirt. Harry had felt ridiculous buying it but he was assured it looked good; good enough that both Ginny and Draco wanted to jump into bed with him. Both were refused. By now the tight fitting clothes were starting to feel uncomfortable. No more than he was sure Nick was in his suit.

They headed into a souvenir shop, all the while in silence. Even Ellis wasn't saying much for a change which was odd for him. Although thinking about it, he had really known Ellis less than a day. He had no idea what he was really like, yet he felt close to the whole group already. Zombie fighting must be a good bonding situation.

Almost as if to punish him for thinking too much a Jockey started to run at him. He raised his gun and pulled the trigger, but he heard a popping noise which he recognised but couldn't place. It took him a moment to realise the Jockey was nowhere to be seen.

The others had noticed too.

"Wha?" Ellis began, when he screeched as a Jockey came from behind, jumping onto the mechanic's head.

They shot it off, and it slumped on the floor dead.

"Wasn't that just in front of us?" Harry asked to nobody in particular.

"Must have jumped without us noticing" Nick said, apparently happy with his theory.

"That Jockey didn't jump. He disappeared Nick" Ellis argued with the man, who dismissed him with a wave of his hand.

"A reflection then?" came the sarcastic reply.

Coach scowled and led them forward. The shop itself was run down. There were no souvenirs on the shelves, and the wallpaper was cracking.

"Lovely place" Harry muttered. "Guess I'll have to get a souvenir in the tour."

Ellis laughed and Harry could have easily listened to it all day. It was uplifting.

The shop ended up leading into a bar, and then outwards into a cobbled street. The city was actually very pretty. He'd have liked to have visited it when it wasn't infested with zombies.

They headed up the street which was filled with cars and nothing else. It was too quiet for anything to be normal. The atmosphere amongst the group was tense as they expected something to jump out at them at any moment.

Their fears were confirmed when a loud growling came from round a corner. Harry stopped dead in his tracks, making Nick walk into him.

"Watch what you're-"the man began, stopping when he heard the noise too. "Ah shit!"

The Tank must have heard him because it jumped over the wall separating them, rock raised in its hand. They ducked down as it was chucked at them, running back as soon as they could, firing crazily.

The Tank was large and deformed, yet something about it seemed eerily familiar. The face was stretched, abused by the muscle deformations, yet it looked like someone he knew somehow.

It was then he saw it. Stretched across the wide mass of arm, but Harry would recognise the Dark Mark anywhere. He knew some Death Eaters had escaped abroad, fleeing in cowardice. He didn't think wizards could catch muggle illnesses. Perhaps it was a muggle who had had a run in with the Death Eaters but admired their mark and got it as a tattoo. But then why would the face seem so familiar? Suddenly realisation struck him. It was Yaxley. A man similar, but not as powerful as Lucius Malfoy. He was certainly more powerful now. He hadn't realised he had been transfixed until he felt a body come crashing onto his as a car flew over him.

Another loud growl and then a thump told of the Tank's death, but Harry could feel panic setting in. Death Eater Tanks and disappearing Jockeys. The familiar popping sound he heard, he realised, was the noise one made when apparating. Clearly wizards could get the zombie disease, although why he hadn't he didn't know, though the fact he was with four muggles who were still human suggested some people had a natural immunity.

"Cool tattoo" he heard Ellis say in the distance. He hadn't imagined the mark then.

The body on top of his moved and Nick said "We're even now."

He stood up and looked at the man, wiping tears off his face. He hadn't even noticed he had been crying. That had been a real shock to him, but he had to get over it. There wouldn't always be people to push him out of the way of flying cars.

"Are you okay Harry? You seem freaked out about somethin'" Ellis asked concerned, running to the teen.

"It's a long story. Now isn't really the place" he said, shaking his head.

"But-"Ellis began, but Coach cut him off.

"He's right Ellis."

"Thank you Nick, anyway" Harry said, smiling softly at the man.

"Like I said, we're even now" Nick replied, but his expression wasn't hard. Maybe Nick secretly liked him.

"I think we can get into those apartments" Rochelle butted in, pointing at the buildings next to them. Harry gathered himself together and they set off. Now the shock had worn off it meant Harry was now prepared to face anything different. He knew about wizards, something none of the others did, so he'd have to watch out for anything magical and try and stop it.

The apartments were deserted, bar from a few zombies, but nothing major seemed to be happening.

"It seems awfully quiet here" Coach muttered, the others nodding.

They left the apartments and headed towards another park. The distant cries of a Witch could be heard. They instinctively turned off their lights.

Once they hit the park, they seemed to be hit by a small horde of neatly dressed zombies.

"Guess this is where they all are" he heard somebody say. The rain was getting heavier now, making hearing and seeing things a lot harder.

They crept forward and all stopped dead when they saw the scene.

There was a gazebo, surrounded by tents and plastic chairs. A stereo sat on top of some speakers. A party scene. What shocked them the most was the Witch sat right in the pathway, her wedding dress ripped and bridal gown covering most of her face. Harry almost felt sorry for her.

"She's right in the way" he heard someone whisper, possibly Ellis.

Whoever it was was right. There were large trees on either side of her, and the fences on the sides were too high to climb.

"Can't we go around some other way?" Rochelle said, looking around in hope.

"There was no other way" Nick snapped. The tension amongst everybody was getting high.

"Maybe we can creep round?" Harry suggested. There was a bit of room on either side of her. They might just manage it.

"One at a time" Coach said. He led the way first, managing to get round without startling the crying bride. She noticed the movement however, and by the time Rochelle had gone past she was staring wildly around, screeching loudly.

"She's getting pissed" Nick muttered.

The three left behind crept slightly closer towards her. As they started to get near her, using one of the trees for cover, Harry felt Ellis yank him back into his chest.

"She's lookin' over here. Stay still."

Harry knew he should have been focused but feeling Ellis' hard chest made his heart start to beat wildly for some reason. He tried to reason it to teenager hormones.

They waited for the Witch to change direction, before Nick leapt forward. It was dangerous but his timing was perfect and the bride missed his movement. However it did cause her to stand up, eyes glowing dangerously red and arms flailing everywhere.

Ellis and Harry sank to the floor, not noticing they were still huddled closely together.

"What do we do?" he hissed at the Georgian, who simply shrugged, and Harry could feel the fear radiating off him.

Harry moved to crawl forward slightly, the Witch still looking madly around. They then heard something fly to the opposite end of the gazebo from where they were. The Witch took this as her excuse to run towards the noise and Harry urged Ellis forward and they ran quickly past the centre, ducking down around the gazebo in case she spotted them. She was still growling noisily as she couldn't find the source of the noise, but she was now away from them, leaving them a path through safely.

"You can both thank me later" Nick said smugly.

"Oh I could just hug you right now Nick" Ellis said, moving forward to try and hug the man. He was offered a gun in his face.

"Don't you dare Overalls" came the sharp answer. Ellis soon backed off.

They headed out of the park, past more tents and a stage that had been set up. The couple had picked a bad day for their wedding. There was another small horde waiting for them. It appeared a lot of the locals had been at the wedding, explaining why the part of the town they were in had been so quiet before.

They were heading more to the central town for the tour, meaning that they would be encountering more and more zombies as they went.

They finished off the creatures and headed down another road, all sighing in relief as they spotted a safe room. They sprinted the last steps and slammed the door shut behind them.


	5. Five

The group had barely gotten time to catch their breath when Coach was urging them to get moving again.

"We can't keep that man on the bridge waiting for long. We need to make a move" he directed, looking at them as if daring them to argue.

The others simply nodded, refilling their ammo from the stashes that were left in all of the safe rooms. Fortunately none of them had been injured badly, which was surprising considering they had faced a Witch and a Tank in a short space of time.

They moved out into another cobbled street which had a staircase leading up to the main part of the town.

"Hey, that zombie has something on it's back. Is that a health kit?" Rochelle exclaimed, shooting at a zombie which did seem to have some items strapped onto it. It dropped dead and they walked over to it. The creature had been carrying a health kit, as well as a molotov. Harry hoped their group wouldn't be turning into zombies any time soon.

They climbed the stairs, leading them into a street that was swarming with zombies. They immediately noticed the survivors and clambered towards them. Nick had grabbed a baseball bat that had been in the safe room and was bashing the zombie's heads in with it. The others were making good use of their guns.

Harry winced as he felt a familiar object wrap itself around his chest and arms, and he was yanked backwards harshly. He didn't even time to shout before Ellis had turned and put a shotgun to the Smoker's face. He coughed as he pulled the dead tongue off him and thanked Ellis.

"They really seem ta like you Harry" the Georgian said grimacing. "Suppose it's better than Jockeys though." Ellis did seem to attract the Jockeys over the other mutated types.

When they deemed the street safe to move down, they did so, stopping at a tattoo shop that hadn't been boarded up. Or rather Ellis had decided to run in and the others had no choice but to follow him.

"Oh man, these are awesome!" Ellis exclaimed, looking at the designs."I might get Jimmy Gibbs done on my arm, oh, or maybe that awesome one we saw on the Tank!"

"No, no, no Ellis. Do not get that one" Harry said panicking slightly. Even as a muggle with no idea what the Dark Mark was, getting the design done as a tattoo would be disturbing.

Ellis looked at him curiously and opened his mouth but Rochelle cut him off.

"Boys. Another time, maybe?" she muttered, shaking her head.

Ellis reluctantly followed her out of the shop, and they headed into a bar. There seemed to be only one way out, and that was to jump down into a deserted construction site.

"Ladies first" Nick said, smiling at Rochelle, who simply glared at him, but jumped down with Coach right behind. The other three followed, landing in a small pool of water which had formed from the rain. They trudged through it, and up the slope of the site.

They all stopped and stared as what looked like a bus went whizzing past the fence at the end of the road.

"That wasn't-?" Coach began.

"Can't be" Ellis muttered.

"Right, well I'm going to go this way" Nick said, rolling his eyes and heading down into what was yet another bar.

The bar had a number of zombies in it, most of which had t-shirts on with the words 'Midnight Riders' written across. It looked like a band that must have been due to play in the area.

They shot the creatures, including a Boomer which had jumped out at them. Coach had shoved it backwards forcefully before shooting it, allowing them to avoid being thrown up on.

The bar had an upstairs to it, and housed some small bedrooms. They managed to find some pain pills in a suitcase that had been half packed.

The building was relatively empty, bar a few zombies, and they managed to get to the top floor easily enough. The streets were the most dangerous parts it seemed.

They found a plank leading into the building opposite the one they were in. They carefully walked over it, all the time hoping that a Smoker wouldn't try to grab them off.

"All the zombies we've been fightin' and we're scared of a plank?" Ellis laughed.

The building they were in now seemed to be derelict and abandoned. They headed down to the bottom floor, allowing them to get back out onto the street.

Rochelle had taken her first step out when a mumbling sound came from behind them and the next thing Rochelle had vanished.

"There!" Coach called, pointing to the far end of the street where the Charger was pounding her into the floor.

Coach and Nick ran, with Ellis and Harry close behind covering them from the zombies that had been alerted by the shouting. They shot the Charger, causing it to collapse on top of Rochelle, and they rolled the body off of her.

"Are you alright Ro?" Coach asked, crouching down.

"I hurt everywhere" she moaned, wincing as she sat up.

Coach offered her some pills and she took them gratefully. There wasn't much they could do for her other than give her pain killers; she seemed to have no external injuries and didn't appear to have broken anything. She was just very sore.

"I've never seen a Charger go that distance before" Harry mused, and the others looked at him thoughtfully.

"Well look. We can get you to rest properly later. For now we need to get off the streets and back to Jimmy Gibbs car. The under the river tour is in that jazz club so it ain't too far to go" Coach said, smiling down at Rochelle.

He helped Rochelle up and they walked over to the club.

"Who puts a tourist attraction in a club?" Harry wondered aloud.

"I can imagine" Nick muttered, shaking his head.

They walked past the bar area and out to a small landing which had stairs leading down into the tour.

"5 Dollars for an under the river tour!" Rochelle exclaimed as she saw the prince list.

"It's only 2 Dollars for children and OAPs" Ellis added, as if it made a difference. They weren't going to pay anyway.

"Well at least Harry and Coach get a discount" Nick said, pushing past the group and heading down the stairs first.

"I got no problem with leaving you behind Nick" Coach muttered angrily.

Harry could sense Nick rolling his eyes.

They followed him down into a bare room, which led out into a drab, barren space with a basic wooden walkway.

"Is this the tour?" Harry asked, looking around and seeing nothing of interest.

"I guess so" Ellis answered, shooting absently at a couple of zombies. "Maybe it gets better when it goes under the river."

The walkway led them into another small room which seemed to serve no purpose, and turned into yet another drab space with a walkway. This time the place seemed to be crawling with zombies. A fact they noticed more when a Boomer came from behind them and vomited on them, causing every zombie in the vicinity to come rushing towards them.

Ellis and Harry crouched down at the front, shooting wildly with pistols, while Nick stood to one side with his bat. Rochelle and Coach covered from the back.

Harry had found it was better if all of them were covered in the Boomer bile. If only one of them was then the zombies would focus all of their attention on the one person; at least now the attack was equally dispersed.

He could feel the zombies moving in on them, not sure what he was shooting as the bile had covered his vision. Their claws were scratching at him, and he felt a sudden surge of panic. The place was enclosed and the horde seemed never ending.

He gasped as he felt a sudden jolt of magic flow through him, escaping from his hands and pushing the horde back, killing them all. He had no idea what had just happened; the last time he had used wandless magic like that was when he was a child, before he could control it, or even knew about it. He vaguely recalled Hermione mentioning once that wandless magic required training, but sometimes in extreme circumstances it could happen.

He stared down at his hands. They were still tingling. He didn't know if he'd be able to do it again, especially as he felt more tired than he had been before, but still, it gave him comfort to know that in extreme circumstances he could be protected by his magic. He just really hoped he could get his hands on a wand soon so he could do some real magic.

"Um, Harry?" he heard Ellis ask tentatively. "What did you just do?"

"I, er, I…" he stopped, unsure what to say. He didn't want to sound like a lunatic, or even get their hopes up.

"More like how'd you get the pipe bomb to kill them without making a sound or killing us?" Nick added, giving Harry the perfect excuse. Nick's fear of anything out of the ordinary had finally come in useful.

"I, um, covered it so it wouldn't beep and threw it at the last minute" he answered feebly. Luckily Nick, Coach and Rochelle seemed to buy into it.

"That was stupid but clever too" Nick said nodding. "Just be careful. Your stupid luck could run out at any moment."

The oldest of the group moved forward, leaving Ellis and Harry together at the back.

"I was righ' next ta ya. There wasn't no pipe bomb in your hands" the mechanic whispered quietly, although Nick still overheard.

"What are you suggesting Ellis? Harry had a grenade launcher hidden up his sleeve?"

Ellis ignored the conman and turned to Harry expectantly.

"I'll explain later. Now isn't really the time Ellis" he said, looking around the new room to check for zombies. The bile seemed to have attracted them all and got them out earlier, leaving their current path clean.

Ellis seemed to accept the answer for now, but he still seemed to be focused on Harry. He didn't look worried or angry. Instead he looked more intrigued, almost excited. The boy seemed to be scared of nothing.

The rooms eventually led them to another staircase, with a sign hanging on the wall besides it, claiming the under the river part of the tour would be coming soon.

"I'm so glad I didn't pay to get in here" Nick muttered darkly. "This had better get us across."

"Just be prepared to swim" Coach said, just as darkly.

They walked down the staircase, leading them down into a darker, colder atmosphere.

"Might as well move a few Dementors in here. They'd feel right at home" Harry said casually, slapping his hand over his mouth when he realised what he had said.

"Demon tours?" Rochelle questioned curiously.

"You know…de mentors. Like mentors but um, nasty. It's a, uh, slang term at my school for the prefect bullies" he lied.

"You really are weird" Nick said from beside him, but he couldn't sense any viciousness behind the man's words.

"Looks like we're gonna have to jump down" he head Coach say. The older man had walked off a bit further to examine the place. The stair case did end high above a pool of water. The joined Coach and all stared down. "All together now?"

They shot the zombies they could see crawling around, and then took a leap off the staircase. Luckily the fall was not too high, but they landed awkwardly.

"Oh Hell! This is a freakin' sewer!" Nick yelled, grimacing horribly.

"Afraid of germs Nick?" Rochelle laughed as they battled their way through the sewage and over to a ladder leading up to a paved part.

"I don't know. Why don't you ask those millions of people who have just been turned into zombies?" he bit back. Rochelle simply laughed at him some more.

Nick rushed to the ladder first, looking oddly happy as he found himself back on dry land. The paved part led them through to another side, and back to what was another sewer.

"You have got to be kidding me? I officially hate Rayford!" Nick growled.

"We need ta open this gate. Looks like an alarm is gonna go off, so we need ta run" Ellis said, ignoring Nick's moans and looking at the gate opening system. "Ready?"

They nodded and Ellis pressed the button, causing the expected alarm and lights to go off. They jumped back into the sewage, Nick very hesitantly, and they trudged forward, shooting at the zombies rushing towards them.

There seemed to be a never ending stream of them, all heading towards the noise and the lights. A Spitter appeared, shooting her acid at them, which they luckily managed to avoid. Any injuries in the horde could be fatal.

They spotted a ladder in the distance, or rather Nick did, and they clambered up it and over to another gate. They rushed down the platform they were on, which had been broken off near the end.

"Oh come on!" Nick yelled, before taking the plunge back into the dirty water.

Harry could feel the sewage water in his shoes and soaking his jeans. Even he had to admit it was pretty disgusting. They walked towards a tunnel, enclosing them in darkness other than the light that their torches provided.

The horde of zombies was still going strong, and a Charger went flying past them, luckily not catching anybody. Someone turned backwards and shot it before it could come back, but the rest carried on forward.

A brighter light started to shine, and they could see the end of the tunnel and what looked like dry land. They jumped up onto the land, and back up another ladder. They ran up a staircase, attempting to get away before any more zombies appeared.

"Safe room!" Coach called, spotting the familiar red barred door.

They ran into it, slamming the door shut. Harry sank onto the floor to catch his breath. He looked up when he felt Ellis' hand on his shoulder. The mechanic was smiling down at him, and Harry could feel his heart beating wildly for reasons he couldn't understand.

"I see proper land out here. We must be the other side of the river" Rochelle said, and Ellis ran to look out of the other door.

"We've all got our breath back? Ready to go?" Coach asked the group.

"Yeah, any of you got any hand sanitiser?" Nick said, getting a laugh in response. He just glared back.

Rochelle opened the door after they got fresh ammo, and they all breathed in the fresh air.

"So Ro. Are ya lookin' forward to seein' that biker dude again? Ellis asked, grinning at Rochelle.

"Ellis!" she exclaimed, looking away and blushing slightly.

"Ahh come on, we all saw how y'all were looking at one another."

The others nodded and she blushed some more, walking up another staircase, which led straight up to the bridge.

There were three people sat there waiting; Francis, a young girl and a bald man.

"Hello again!" Francis said joyfully, more to Rochelle. "This here is Zoey and Louis." He pointed to the woman and the man respectively.

Their group moved forward, but before they could say anything Louis gasped suddenly in shock, staring at Harry, although more specifically, he was staring at his forehead.

"I can't believe it!" he whispered in awe. "It's Harry Potter!


	6. Six

Harry and Louis stared at each other as the rest of the survivors looked from one to the other in shock.

"You two know each other?" Francis asked incredulously.

"No" Harry stated, shaking his head. "Louis, are you, umm…?" he trailed off, unsure how to finish the question. If Louis was what he suspected then he wouldn't need to worry about being misunderstood.

"Not exactly" Louis answered, shaking his head. "My parents…not me."

"Well that's helpful" Nick cut in, rolling his eyes. Harry knew what Louis meant perfectly however; Louis was a Squib.

"You seem, er, surprised that I'm not infected" Harry said, ignoring Nick and the other's confused looks.

"I'm sorry to say things aren't working like they used to. There's nothing specific to let someone avoid getting infected, if you get what I mean?" Louis replied, gaining more looks of confusion from the others.

Harry's previous suspicions about magical infected were now confirmed.

"That doesn't explain how you knew Harry's full name?" Ellis piped up. "Even we didn't know it."

"Well my parents used to play ping pong with a man named Albus Dumbledore. He was headmaster at Harry's school. My folks ended up pretty good friends with him and he would visit quite a lot" Louis explained, still looking at Harry. "He was very proud of you, you know Harry? I'm sorry about what happened to him" he finished sadly.

"That's alright" Harry muttered, looking down at the floor. Dumbledore had been a loss he had taken pretty hard, but in the end he had managed to defeat Voldemort without him. He'd have to take that strength with him now. He looked determinedly up at Louis. "I'm got going to let him down now either."

Louis beamed at him.

"We've all lost people" the girl, Zoey, said, speaking for the first time. "We just can't let their deaths be in vain."

Harry thought she looked rather sad, although she was trying to hide it. He supposed she must have lost all her family in the outbreak.

"Never heard truer words" Coach agreed. "Now, how about we get this bridge lowered? What do we need to do?"

"We were down there earlier. There are three generators, but one of them was playing up. It's since ran out of fuel. There's a ton of gas canisters laying around in the warehouses. If you guys can get it filled up, then we can help cover you from up here" Francis told the group, pointing towards a generator just below them.

They nodded and headed off toward a lift to take them down o the ground. Zoey and Francis helped Louis up, who appeared to have a leg injury, and were all about to head off when Louis called Harry back to him.

Harry told his group to give him two minutes and he rushed over to the man. With just the two of them now it allowed them to speak a bit more freely.

"Do they not know about you then?" Louis asked, voice hushed.

"No, I lost my wand. I'm no help without it really" he admitted, wringing his hands together.

"Here" Louis said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a tiny dragon figurine. "Albus gave me this when I was a little boy. He filled it with magic so that I'd be able to feel it, even if I didn't have any myself. I think you need it more than me now. It might help you connect" he smiled, throwing the figurine at Harry.

"I couldn't…it must mean a lot to you if you've kept it for so long."

"Harry Potter…you have done so much for the world, whether they know it or not. I think we owe it to you to help you survive this" Louis said, smiling brightly. "Now you get down there before that miserable guy kills you instead."

Harry laughed and thanked Louis profusely, before running back to his friends.

"You alright?" Ellis asked, grinning when Harry nodded. "Let's do this then!"

They pressed the button to take them down to the ground. The other survivors were positioned above them, and it gave them all an extra boost of security to see them. Knowing there were at least more than five people alive was comforting in itself.

"Shall we split into groups?" Rochelle asked. "If the canisters are all over it would help us get it done quicker."

They all silently agreed with the idea, and Rochelle and Coach headed in one direction while Harry, Nick and Ellis headed in the other. They tried not to stray too far from the others.

There weren't an awful lot of zombies around, but the quietness was almost unnerving. Ellis and Harry soon managed to find a couple of canisters, and they ran back to the generator, Nick covering them, although he found some more gas half way back and figured he had nothing to lose by taking it with him.

Rochelle and Coach had been just as successful, and they ended up managing to fill half the generator in one go.

"This is nothin'!" Ellis yelled excitedly, turning to high five Harry, who returned it awkwardly.

"A bit too easy" Nick muttered darkly.

Almost as if fate had heard him, a familiar roar caught their attention.

"Let it come here. We have more bullets" Harry said, jerking his head at the group on the bridge.

The Tank was getting louder as it got nearer, and they all raised their guns at the ready.

The creature rounded the corner, bulky muscles heaving. As it ran towards them, they shot wildly. An item went flying over their heads, landing on the ground and bursting into flames. The Molotov spread across the ground, setting the Tank completely ablaze.

The Tank showed no signs of stopping, but it did seem to be slowing down, the fire doing it's job.

Already injured by the fire, it didn't stand much of a chance at the onslaught of bullets from all eight guns and it soon dropped to the floor.

Rochelle and Coach ran off again to find some more canisters. Nick pushed past Harry and Ellis, not uttering a word to them, but expecting them to join him.

The two boys followed obediently, Harry walking into Nick as he stopped suddenly.

Nick growled, and Harry stepped around him, looking at what had stopped Nick in his tracks.

It was the corpse of a man, with a very human looking body. He was dressed in army style clothing, a gun still in his hands. He looked thoroughly beaten, although most of his body was still in tact. From the looks of it he hadn't been dead long.

"Do you think he was with Louis and them?" Harry whispered, looking at the dead man sadly.

"I guess so" Ellis answered, looking just as darkened by the find.

Nick shrugged and stepped past the corpse, towards another couple of gas canisters. He threw one back to Ellis who picked it up, allowing Harry to cover the two men.

Coach and Rochelle had hit a jackpot find and both had two cans, one under each arm and a pistol held loosely in one hand.

It wasn't safe but they were lucky enough to have avoided any special infected.

They now had more than enough canisters and had filled the tank up with one to go when a roar echoed in the distance again.

"Another one?" Rochelle exclaimed, clapping her hands over her mouth.

Ellis hurriedly poured the last canister into the machine. Just as he clicked the button to set the bridge moving, another roar came, even louder than before. There was something different about it though; it didn't just seem louder, it was almost like-

"There's two of them" Harry muttered, his heart pounding in his chest. One Tank was bad enough, but two would be even more dangerous.

They had used up a lot of their ammo already and they were out of grenades.

The bridge seemed to be hardly moving, and the Tanks were moving faster.

They ran towards the bridge, waiting for it to lower to allow them to cross. If all else failed they could try and drive off and away from the Tanks rather than killing them, but that wouldn't be fair on the others.

As they waited, the Tanks had reached them, moving side by side. Harry had never seen anything so terrifying. He subconsciously moved his hand into his pocket, grasping the small dragon that Louis had given him. It was worth a shot.

He shot with one hand, while his other arm stretched out in front of him, figurine grasped firmly inside his fist. He had no idea what to do; it wasn't exactly like a wand, and he didn't know what would work, or even if it could work, but he decided he may as well try.

An idea struck him as the Tanks passed a wall and he cried out "Reducto!"

He swore in excited shock as the wall smashed into pieces, striking the Tanks and knocking them off balance.

"Sweet!" he heard Louis yell, and Ellis was looking at him in amazement. He had to laugh momentarily at Nick who was clearly trying to come up with an explanation in his head.

They were using as many bullets as they had on the Tanks, which were still dazed from the flying debris. It was almost like a taste of their own medicine.

The bridge lowered finally, just as the Tanks fell to the ground, too close for comfort.

"Thank you guys, so much" Rochelle called, blowing a kiss to Francis.

"Good luck!" Zoey called back, and the gang broke into a run to their car.

Harry could feel his legs aching as he ran, exhausted from the spell. The fact he hadn't used a wand meant a lot of his energy had to go into it, plus there was the fact he still hadn't gotten over the accidental wandless magic from earlier.

Ellis seemed to notice, and he grabbed hold of Harry's hand and pulled him forward with him.

The car seemed so much further away than it had been before, but they eventually reached it, all of them throwing themselves in. Ellis kicked the engine into life, and they sped across the bridge and through the end of the town.

Harry had ended up in the back seat with Nick and Rochelle on either side of him.

"So is that what you and that Louis guy were talking about then? Putting explosives on the walls?" Nick asked, looking at Harry curiously.

"Sure" he lied, but Nick nodded and looked content with the answer. He was beginning to feel surprised that Nick hadn't claimed that the zombies were just characters from a play or something.

He blinked wearily and tried to force himself to stay awake.

"Err Nick" Ellis muttered from the front. "I'm kind of feelin' tired. Do y'all mind takin' over for a bit?"

Nick looked surprised for a moment but he soon brushed it aside and quickly jumped over and changed seats with Ellis. Nick may not have seemed thrilled about the car at first, but he sure looked excited at being able to drive it, although that may have been because of the reckless way that Ellis drove.

Ellis settled in the back, not looking all that tired.

He hoped Ellis didn't want to bug him for explanations; he was too tired to do much talking.

To his surprise, Ellis didn't ask him anything; he simply gestured to his shoulder for Harry to lean on. Harry was grateful for anything comfortable and laid his head down on Ellis, who moved his arm around Harry to pull him closer and into a more comfortable position.

Ellis seemed so soft, and he soon fell into an exhausted sleep.

\---

Harry groaned softly as he awoke, blushing slightly as he realised that his arm had reached over Ellis's chest.

He pulled back and sat up slightly, blocked by the arm wrapped around him. Ellis was awake but showed no signs of moving.

Coach was now sat beside him, fast asleep. Rochelle was sleeping in the front, while Nick was still driving.

"He's had a rest" Ellis hissed gently, noticing where Harry was looking. "Can you tell me now?" the Georgian muttered, glancing at Nick, not wanting to be overheard.

Harry sighed and nodded, albeit reluctantly.

"I won't judge or nothin'" Ellis said quickly, sensing Harry's doubts.

"It's not that I think you'll judge me, it's just whether you'll believe me" Harry explained, looking Ellis directly in the eyes.

Ellis seemed to be determined but gentle, and Harry knew he could trust him.

He leant over and put his mouth by Ellis's ear, to save being overheard by Nick. "I'm a wizard" he said, taking in the mechanic's reaction.

"I knew it!" Ellis said almost too loudly, grinning. He noticed Nick glance at them through the mirror. Ellis dropped his volume. "I knew that stuff had come from your hands. Why haven't you told us before? It could come in real handy."

"First of all, I don't think you'll have believed me if you hadn't seen it first. Secondly, I lost my wand so I can't actually do that much" he stated, sighing slightly. "I have something I can use but it takes up a lot of energy so I can't use it too much. A wand would be so useful though. I know so many spells that could help out, even one for mending broken bones…" he trailed off, sighing again as he thought of how stupid he had been in his panic before. He should have held onto it tighter or something. He really was an idiot.

"Is that why you wanna check out those shops in New Orleans?" Ellis asked, realisation dawning on his face. "We'll do that if it can help ya out" he smiled, and Harry felt glad he had told him. It had got the load off his chest.

"Can you not say anything to the others Ellis? I don't want to get their hopes up or anything" he plead to Ellis, who nodded.

"You two aren't as quiet as you think you are" Nick said suddenly, causing them both to jump and stare at him in horror.

"Nick? Were you eaves dropping?" Ellis questioned the conman, but his question was ignored.

"God, this keeps on getting weirder and weirder" Nick muttered. "So what? You're like some super magical guy who can pull rabbits out of hats?"

"No" Harry answered, glaring. "It's a lot more serious than that. You'll see soon enough." He hoped Nick would at least.

"How come we've never heard of any wizards or anything before then?" Nick seemed to be getting quite into his questioning.

"Our world has kept it a secret. I'm sure you can guess why" he replied, and Nick stayed silent for a moment, obviously understanding what Harry meant; if muggles knew of the Wizarding World then they would bug them for everything, serious or not.

"How'd you learn it? Can anyone learn?" came the question from Ellis this time instead. Ellis sounded a lot more enthusiastic than Nick had. Nick simply sounded sceptical.

"You have to be born with magic blood. If you are then you get put on the list to attend a magic school. That's the one I was telling you about that I went to."

"Oh, I see" Ellis grinned, and Harry could almost see what Ellis was imagining a magic school to be like. "So this magic stuff? Does it have anything to do with that tattoo thing?"

Harry didn't answer, unsure what to say. He didn't know how much he wanted them to know; he had had enough of Voldemort and his Death Eaters already; having to explain it to someone was too much. He settled on a simple answer.

"Yeah…most magical beings are good but there was recently a very evil one. His followers all carried that tattoo. The evil wizard is dead now, but it's still got the meaning behind it" Harry explained, satisfied with his answer. "Can we drop this now though? Nick, please stay quiet about this" he begged the older man.

"Fine, just don't do anything weird to me. I've had enough weirdness with the zombies, I don't need anything else" Nick muttered, glancing around and stopping the car. He turned around and shoved Coach hard.

"What?" Coach groaned, still half asleep.

"Your turn to drive" Nick explained, causing quite the commotion as they moved around.

"I'll keep your secret" Nick hissed into Harry's ear, leaning almost on top of him. "Just make sure you get me a spell to let me win big in Vegas."

Harry grinned and rolled his eyes at the man, turning back into Ellis for comfort.

He decided that as soon as they escaped the zombies, he'd take Nick to the Room of Requirement where he could gamble his heart out. He'd take them all to Hogwarts and they could have everything they ever hoped for. They deserved it and he was determined that he would get it for them.


	7. Seven

Ellis had been unable to be without driving for too long, and he was soon back in the driver's seat, with Coach by his side. The older man was still asleep, but everyone else was wide awake. Every time Ellis tried to speak, Rochelle and Nick would both hush him and point at Coach.

They were back on a highway, Ellis seemingly knowing which way to go. They had been driving with no interruptions for a long while, when the car suddenly slowed down, coming to a steady stop. The lack of motion caused Coach to stir, mumbling something incomprehensible.

"Why have we stopped Ellis?" Nick moaned, leaning forward."Oh" he said, noticing what Ellis had seen.

Harry leaned forward as well, the view of the road becoming clearer. Abandoned cars were blocking the road completely on both sides of the highway. It looked like they were never ending. Harry supposed they were lucky not to have been caught in it before.

"I think we may be walking from here" Harry said, trying to look past the cars to see if there was anything distinguishable, a feat made harder considering it was still dark. "Unless we can turn around and go another way?"

"Nah, I don't think the other roads will be much better. We've been lucky" Coach murmured, clicking the handle on the door but not opening it, waiting to see if the noise would attract any zombies. When it seemed clear, the group left the car. Rochelle spotted another car with it's boot open, with a number of guns scattered around it. The two bodies slumped by the car suggested they hadn't been used much.

They each grabbed a gun from the car, and Ellis turned back to look at the stock car mournfully.

"I'm gonna miss you Jimmy Gibbs Junior. You served us well ol' friend" he whispered to the car, laying a hand gently on top of it.

Nick rolled his eyes and started to navigate his way through the cars, the others closely behind.

"I'm sure wherever the real Jimmy Gibbs Junior is, he'll be proud of you Ellis" Harry said, trying to comfort the mechanic, who turned and smiled brightly at him.

"Ya really think so?" he asked.

"Well I'm pretty sure zombies can't feel anything, so no" Nick cut in, earning him a slap around the head from Rochelle.

"Try and be more sensitive" she hissed at the gambler.

"It's a freakin' car" Nick snarled back.

Rochelle and Ellis both opened their mouths to say something back, but a low growl caught their attention.

"Concentrate people" Coach warned. "There's a Hunter about."

They looked around, guns at the ready, waiting for the creature to pounce. It leapt out suddenly from behind a car, jumping at Nick. Nick shot it as much as he could before it pushed him to the ground, the creature being killed by their bullets before it could dig it's claws in.

"See Nick, you pro'ably offended it. There are a lot of Jimmy Gibbs fans ya know?" Ellis said seriously. Nick just shook his head and stood up, shaking the dust off his suit.

"Whatever" he muttered.

The shooting had attracted a number of zombies, all of them coming over the tops of the cars and slinking around them. It was quite dangerous not being able to see them all that well.

They shot the creatures, taking care not to hit any of the cars in case they were alarmed.

They found themselves fine one moment, then with zombies behind them the next, as they battled their way through.

"We need to get off the highway" Harry called, Coach nodding in authoritative agreement.

"There's an off ramp over there" Ellis yelled to the survivors, pointing slightly to the right.

They carried on dodging around the cars, killing the zombies as they went.

A spitting noise came from behind them. As green acid came flying towards him, Harry jumped up onto a car to avoid it, wincing as he expected a loud alarm to start ringing. Fortunately it never did. Feeling relieved with his luck, he managed to miss the tell tale coughing sound, yelping as a tongue constricted his arms and chest and yanked him off the car, and out of view of the rest of the group.

'This is getting ridiculous' Harry thought as he was slammed into another car, trying desperately to free himself.

A shot went over his head, hitting the Smoker dead in the chest. He looked up to see Nick stood there, smug look on his face. Ellis rushed forward to pull the tongue off him.

"Do I look like a female Smoker or something?" Harry asked, looking down at his body.

"Maybe" Ellis said laughing. "There is something about you that they like."

He offered his hand to help Harry up, and he could see Coach and Rochelle waiting on the other side of the car.

"You alright?" Rochelle asked, and he nodded. Rochelle smiled, and Coach led the way again, heading to the off ramp.

The off ramp was a lot clearer than the highway, only a couple of cars lingering on it. It made it a lot easier to see where they were going and how many zombies were around.

They walked down it, leading into another dark road. Spotlights seemed to be shining in the distance.

"Hey, I recognise this!" Ellis exclaimed. "That's Whispering Oaks Amusement Park over there."

"Oh man, I used to love that place as a kid" Coach said, smile breaking onto his face.

Harry had never gone to an amusement park before; the Dursleys would never take him when they took Dudley. It was a shame that the first time he went would be during a zombie apocalypse.

They wandered up the road, heading towards a motel that was to the side of the road. There were a few zombies lingering around who hadn't noticed the group. In their idle state, the zombies were almost sad to look upon. If you ignored the blood and claws, they looked just like very sick people. Once they turned and started trying to kill you however, that quickly got rid of the notion.

As they turned into the car park, a Charger appeared from behind them, heading towards Coach. The man quickly jumped out of the way, causing the Charger to run into a far wall. The impact knocked it off balance, and it stumbled around for a moment, before straightening up and running in the direction that bullets were hitting it.

It headed towards Harry, who stepped out of the way before it could reach him, and once again it crashed into a wall. Apparently this Charger was especially stupid. It was strong, taking a lot of their bullets, but it was almost like a game for them to see it miss them.

The Charger died, and they stepped over it's body, Ellis stomping his foot down on it's arm. They walked to the swimming pool area, where a number of corpses were floating around in the water.

"Zombies are awful swimmers then" Nick mused.

They headed over to a staircase, leading them to the upper floor of the motel. They needed to find a way around to the back, as a fence was blocking their path on the ground.

The doors and windows of the rooms weren't boarded up and were wide open, some of the walls even crumbling away slightly were the zombies had pounded on them. It wasn't a safe place to stay and rest for the night, which was a shame because having a normal room with a bed would have been amazing for them.

They took the path that the motel corridor took them; leading to another staircase going down and to some land which Ellis assured them would take them directly to Whispering Oaks.

They chose to take the country route rather than the roads; there would be a lot less blockages and it would be easier to see the area generally.

The back of the motel was plain and grassy, a few trees dotted about. It was directly next to a steep looking gully. From looking at it from above, it was obvious that once they were down they wouldn't be able to get back up.

Trees were blocking their view of what was below.

"We'll all go down together and hope there's no Tank waiting for us" Coach directed.

They all stepped onto the gully, having to break into a run in order to stop themselves falling. Harry almost lost his balance when he reached the ground at the bottom, Nick's arm being the only thing stopping him falling face first into the stream that was running across the ground.

Harry smiled at Nick in thanks quickly, before they both turned to attack the zombies running towards them. The water seemed to slow them down slightly, although not by much, but the slower speed enabled them to be killed faster.

They trudged onwards, the water not too deep to disturb their own pace.

"I hear a Jockey" Ellis muttered, all of them whipping their heads around when they heard the sound of the cackle. The creature seemed to jump out of a bush, aimed at Ellis. He steered the mechanic towards the trees, despite Ellis's best efforts to pull it off his head.

Jockeys were particularly hard to shoot, as they were the smallest type of zombies they had come across, meaning there was less space to hit. They also didn't want to shoot Ellis by mistake. Harry leapt after Ellis and the Jockey, deciding to shoot at short range. It worked, and the Jockey's body slipped to the floor, Ellis tumbling backward into the trees.

"Lousy human" he heard a female voice hiss; definitely not Rochelle.

"Ahh Hell! A snake!" Ellis yelped jumping up. "I'll get rid of it." He aimed his gun at the small creature, about to pull the trigger when Harry screamed at him to stop.

"You can't kill it Ellis" he said to the Georgian, looking down at the animal. It had thick stripy bands of light and dark brown, and Harry guessed it would be about two and a half feet long when set out straight. The snake was currently sat defensively, although it seemed to be looking at Harry curiously.

"That's a Copperhead. They're…" Ellis started, before Harry interrupted.

"I don't care what it is. You can't kill it, just leave it alone. I'll put it back a bit, you just go on" Harry told him.

Ellis looked at him for a moment, before a knowing look crossed his face and he winked at Harry; if only Ellis really had an idea of what he was about to do. "Just be careful Harry; they're poisonous ya know?" Ellis said, before wandering off slightly, covering him while Harry crouched down to the snake.

"Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you" he hissed quietly at the snake, which seemed to perk up and move closer to Harry, although not in a threatening manner. It raised it's head slightly.

"Ah, you are a Talker. I never thought I would get the chance to speak to a Talker, especially not after all these humans have become so different. Why are you not changed?" the snake asked, eyes boring into his.

"We are…immune…I think. We don't seem to be effected" he explained to the snake, who he could have sworn nodded.

"Some of these dirty humans…they've been killing our kinds, ripping them apart. Our venom doesn't work on them. It is not safe for us anymore. But you, you are a Talker. You may be able to help me. It can only be fate that we met child. I would never harm a Talker, and you wanted no harm to come to me. We must be connected."

"What is your name?" Harry asked, tilting his head as he looked at the animal, not wanting to imagine the things being ripped apart by zombies. He had wondered at times what was happening with the animals; clearly they weren't being infected, but the monsters must have been attacking them just as much as they did other humans, only animals weren't able to defend themselves.

"My name is Ethelinda" the snake told him. What do they call you child?"

"Harry" he answered. "I can take you with me, as long as you promise to do no harm to any of us."

"Oh no, I would never harm a Talker" the snake assured him.

"Not just me. My friends as well; I don't want you to hurt them either."

Ethelinda looked for a moment as if she was unsure.

"Fine…I suppose they are safer than the other humans that are out there. Just don't let that man point a gun at me again."

"I won't let him. He'll listen to me" he said, smirking slightly.

Ethelinda responded by slithering towards him and up his body, wrapping herself around his chest and arm. He trusted the snake enough not to bite him; most snakes he had spoken with listened to Parselmouths with interest, and treated them almost like part of the snake family. The only exceptions had been the snakes that Voldemort had been in connection with, most notably Nagini.

"Erm Harry, you have a snake on you" Ellis said dumbly as Harry went the quick distance back to the group.

"I know. She's safe" he replied, stroking Ethelinda softly to prove his point.

Ellis opened his head to say something, before shutting it again.

"Well I like it. It's made Ellis shut up for once" Nick said smirking.

"Harry, honey, I know you might like snakes but that's venomous. It could bite any one of us" Rochelle tried to explain to him, but Harry shook his head.

"Trust me on this. She won't hurt any of us. She's more scared of the zombies; they've been killing snakes" he told the group, cursing himself as he said too much again.

"How'd you know that?" Coach asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I saw the, erm, bodies of lots of snakes in the bushes; ripped apart. Just trust me on this when I say she's safe" he pleaded.

"Well I trust ya Harry" Ellis piped up, voice returning to him. "You obviously understand snakes better than we do so I'll go with ya on this one." Harry had to laugh at his use of the word 'understand'.

"I swear to you kid; if it bites me and kills me, then I will return as a ghost and haunt you forever" Nick told Harry, nodding his head seriously. He shot quickly behind him, hitting a Smoker in the face.

"That was awesome! How'd you do that?" Ellis exclaimed, jumping at Nick, who pushed the boy off him and aimed for a hill leading back to dry land.

Rochelle and Coach exchanged weary looks with each other, but they said no more on the subject and allowed Harry to follow them with the snake still curled happily around him.

"They're nervous of me. I can sense it" Ethelinda hissed to him, flicking her tongue out.

"Just be thankful they've agreed to let you stay. If you even think about hurting them though I'll throw you straight to one of the big ones" he warned the snake.

"I will stay loyal to you child. I will harm none who you desire to keep safe."

Harry petted the creature fondly, before glancing over the hill with his eyes. There seemed to be no special infected on the hills, only a few of the common zombies. As they reached the top however, a crying sound reached their ears.

"I remember crying when I had to leave Whispering Oaks before" Ellis reminisced.

"I don't think she's upset about the park being shut somehow" Rochelle laughed, before a serious expression took over her face again.

As they neared the top of the hill, they spotted the Witch, to the side of the open space they had come out onto.

"There's a safe room up there" Coach hissed at them all quietly. "Once we're there we're in Whispering Oaks."

They took it one at a time to slink past the Witch on the other side. Coach went first, followed by Nick and then Rochelle. By that point the Witch had noticed the movement, and was staring at the path they had taken, eyes glowing deep red and growling deeply.

"Why is it always us two who have to go last?" Harry asked Ellis, frowning as he looked upon the situation. They didn't have to go to near the woman, but she was clearly annoyed at them being in her area.

"Send the boy first. I can help you" Ethelinda told him. "The red eyed ones have sharp claws, but they do not see the world as it truly is. She is provoked easily but she runs away if she can't find the one responsible. I will draw her out and hide, and then you can run."

Harry nodded, pushing Ellis in a hint to go forward.

"I have an idea, you go" he said, pushing the mechanic again.

Ellis went as quickly as he could forward, causing the Witch to stand; her shoulders hunched and ready to attack.

Ethelinda unwrapped herself from Harry, and went slithering over towards the Witch, slinking over her feet and legs. The Witch glanced down, screaming loudly and tried to lunge towards the ground. Harry took the chance to run forward into Ellis who had been waiting to grab him, and looked just in time to see Ethelinda hiding underneath a car. The Witch was looking around crazily, clawing at her hair and screaming as she took off into the distance.

Ethelinda crawled forward back to Harry and onto his chest once again.

"That is one clever snake" Ellis grinned, pulling Harry forward where the other three were watching, mouths wide open.

"I've done courses in animal training" he lied, Rochelle and Coach nodding dumbly, while Nick rolled his eyes. Harry winked at him when Rochelle and Coach had turned their backs, and the conman almost allowed a smile to cross his face.

They walked into the room, a small building by the ticket booths of the theme park. It contained health packs and ammo, as was expected in every safe room, and with the door shut and the bars across it, for a moment they could feel safe.


	8. Eight

"Can we not sleep here?" Rochelle moaned as she sat on the floor, rubbing her eyes wearily.

"It doesn't look especially safe" Harry mused, examining the room. It was rather small and rectangular shaped. From the outside the walls had looked like thin metal and the doors only had a simple bar to lock it. There also didn't seem to be anything that they could push against the door to protect it, meaning they were open for attack from both ends.

"It ain't worth the risk" Coach agreed.

"I wish that motel had had a safe room in it" Nick said sighing. "Just imagine, comfy beds, a shower...luxury, and that's coming from someone who would never have stepped foot in a motel before."

"Me and my buddy Keith stayed at that motel a few times when we were little" Ellis grinned. "We had some good times there. Did you know they used to have a swimming pool round the back? It's shut now 'cause this one time, Keith decided to see if he could dive in from our room. It did not end well; he-"

"Ellis, this isn't the best time" Nick scowled, shaking his head.

"Was he okay?" Harry mouthed to Ellis, although the amused look on his face made Harry hope the guy's injuries hadn't been too serious.

"He broke a leg but the doctors said 'e was super lucky" Ellis answered, earning him a glare from Nick.

"Hey look! The Midnight Riders were supposed to be playing here. I love that band" Coach exclaimed suddenly, gaining everybody's attention. He was pointing towards some posters that had been hung up, advertising the bands concert dates.

"Oh man! That's awesome!" Ellis said enthusiastically.

"I've never heard of them" Nick muttered, looking less than impressed as he took in the image of the heavy metal band. They reminded Harry a bit of the Weird Sisters, only hairier.

Coach meanwhile seemed to be contemplating something, and he soon turned to them all with a determined look on his face.

"Let's go" he said simply, turning to double check he was fully loaded.

The others exchanged a weary look with each other but moved to follow Coach; the man did seem to be looking out for the rest of them.

Ethelinda seemed to get the memo and got herself comfortable around Harry. He smiled down at the snake. He didn't feel any discomfort with her; the other dangerous snakes he had dealt with were much bigger and a lot more vicious.

He was about to say something when he noticed Ellis seemed to be staring at Ethelinda. It wasn't in horror or confusion; indeed he didn't seem to have any expression suggesting he thought having a poisonous snake wrapped around a human was strange, he instead seemed to be entranced, and Harry was sure he saw the mechanic licking his lips at one point.

"Are you okay Ellis?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as Ellis looked up startled.

"Er, yeah, yeah, I'm okay" Ellis answered, sounding almost horrified that Harry had spoken to him.

"Yeah, don't worry Harry; Ellis is just thinking about his own snake" Nick sniggered, causing Ellis to blush slightly before chasing after the conman in an attempt to swipe him round the head.

"You watch yer tongue Nick" Ellis scowled, speeding out of the safe room.

Harry shook his head in confusion, and Rochelle smiled at him as they left the room together.

The safe room led out into the entrance to the theme park. The ticket booths were right in front of them, and past that it led into a games area; most of which had been boarded up, but some still remained open, toys hanging eerily down from the attractions. Harry felt a twinge of sadness thinking no child might ever get chance to play with the toys again. His mind wandered to his godson Teddy and he hoped with everything in him that he was okay.

"Concentrate" Ethelinda hissed at him, and he looked up just in time to see the zombie right in front of him. He raised his gun and shot it through the eyes, killing it with the one shot. On closer inspection, the creature seemed to look like a teenager. It was a kill or be killed world, but he still couldn't stop the guilt he felt at times. He'd have to stay in reality though if he wanted to survive.

A honking noise caught their attention, and they span around to see a zombiefied clown. The squeaking shoes and nose seemed to be drawing other zombies to him.

"I hate clowns" Ellis growled, shooting wildly at the zombies.

The crowd seemed to gradually disperse but there seemed to be a lot more zombies than usual.

They rushed forwards, towards a shooting range game, which had a number of pipe bombs and Molotov's placed along it. Harry doubted that they were meant to be used on the card cut-outs in the game.

"We could all do with these" Rochelle muttered as she threw the weapons to the others.

"Why not try now?" Harry wondered aloud, throwing the pipe bomb he had been given away from them. The flashing light and loud beeping attracted the attention of all the common infected, and they seemed to come from nowhere, in every direction, heading towards the pipe bomb, not knowing what was about to happen. After enough time for the zombies to gather, the weapon exploded, scattering limbs everywhere.

"Cool" Ellis grinned.

They crept on, perking up when they heard the cackling of a Jockey from one side, and the low growling of a Boomer on the other. Their eyes darted from side to side as they crept forward, waiting for the creatures to show themselves.

Almost as if to show itself off, the Boomer came into view. This one was female, or just about; she wasn't the prettiest of things. They all turned to shoot at her, causing her to explode.

As her body went into the air, the Jockey attacked from behind, taking charge of Coach for a change and leading him backwards where a number of more zombies had appeared. This made shooting the Jockey a lot harder as their vision was obscured. They ran forward, aiming high in an attempt not to hit Coach.

The Jockey was fast, and it steered the man further into the crowd. Rochelle dashed ahead, ignoring the scratches and hits from the normal zombies, and punched the Jockey, making it full to the ground. Coach spat at it as he smashed the creature's skull in with his gun.

As they worked through the horde, Harry noted that the features of these zombies did seem to be younger than what they had seen before.

Nick seemed to be the only one who didn't notice, or perhaps he was the only one who didn't care, but they couldn't hesitate.

When the area was clear, they stopped for a moment to catch their breath, before they went onwards, past the boarded up food stalls. Coach's stomach growled in response to the smell that was still lingering.

"I could really go for a corndog about now" the older man said mournfully.

"Funnel cake was my favourite" Ellis added, smiling at his own memories.

While they walked they kept their eyes open for zombies and any open food stalls, but there seemed to be none of either.

They rounded the corner, and spotted an open storage building, the rest of the pavement being blocked off by fences. Before they entered they stopped to listen and all of them immediately stilled as they heard the low growling.

They had found that the Tank would definitely dominate an area, and other zombies would be less of a nuisance if one was nearby. Fortunately for them, the Tank hadn't yet realised that there were humans in the area, but as soon as they walked through the building it would probably be able to smell or see them, depending on where it was.

"Isn't there another way round?" Rochelle asked, mainly to Coach and Ellis who had been to the amusement park before.

"I don't think so" Coach answered, looking almost upset at the prospect of fighting a Tank.

Nick pulled the Molotov from the strap on his side and went forward slightly. "It's gonna spot us anyway right?" he said, gaining a nod from the others. "This way we get a head start."

With that he threw the Molotov forward, setting the room ablaze. A loud, pained growl followed, and then the booming of the footsteps could be heard heading in their direction.

The group had their guns at the ready, Harry moving one hand to grasp the dragon figurine; Tanks were definitely a case he had no problem in exhausting himself from using magic.

The Tank appeared from the building, body flaming, chunk of something already in it's hands. They ducked as the rock flew towards them, shooting all the while.

They ran backwards, at the same time trying to fight their way through the zombies who had been drawn in by the sound of the Tank.

Harry grasped the dragon tightly in his fist and whispered "Sectumsempra."

The Tank let out a pained cry, and although Harry couldn't see through the fire, he guessed it must have worked somewhat. The creature seemed to slow down, growling in pain with every step it took, although it didn't seem to want to stop.

Harry hoped it would stop soon as he couldn't find it in him to run anymore. Luckily the Tank started to sway and it's punches became uncoordinated.

It fell to the floor with a thump, blood pouring from underneath it. The flames started to die down, and slash marks could faintly be seen through the charred skin.

"I hate them things" Ellis moaned, rubbing the back of his neck.

Harry pocketed the figurine as Ellis and Coach examined the corpse.

"What do you think those slashes are?" Coach questioned, kicking the Tank's arms.

"Not a clue" Ellis answered, and Nick gave Harry a questioning look. Harry just smiled at him and pushed past him and into the room which was now clearing of flames.

"Looks okay in here now" he informed the others, who took that as their mark to move ahead.

They wandered through the storage building, and out into what was probably a pavement for staff; there were no attractions down it, only some large boxes. There appeared to be a number of zombies in the area wearing t-shirts with the word 'staff' written across them.

"Spitter!" Rochelle called, as a female zombie ran in front of them, being shot dead before she could spit. She collapsed in a pool of green acid.

They walked around her after the acid stopped bubbling, and headed back towards the public section of the park.

"Guys look, it's KiddieLand!" Ellis exclaimed, almost jumping in excitement. "Can we kill the zombies and then go on some rides?"

Rochelle laughed while Nick rolled his eyes.

"Aw, don't you agree Harry? Which ride is your favourite?" Ellis said, turning his excitement onto Harry instead.

"I dunno" he answered shrugging. "I've not been to an amusement park before."

Ellis opened his mouth in shock before a joyful expression took over again.

"Well then, we'll just have to ride them all" he grinned.

"No Ellis" Nick scowled, but Ellis didn't argue. They'd have to go together when the zombies were gone.

KiddieLand was full of child friendly attractions, and why Ellis liked it so much, Harry didn't know; he'd much rather go on one of the big, scary looking rides that Dudley always boasted about going on.

Harry was pleased to note that despite the name of the zone, the zombies he were shooting didn't actually seem to be kids; zombies or not, he didn't think he could pull the trigger on a child. He pushed the unpleasant thought from his mind, mainly because he noticed Ethelinda hissing in warning; he had almost forgotten she was there.

He knew what was going to happen as soon as he heard the coughing, but for a change, rather than being yanked back and choked by the Smoker's tongue, the Smoker let go of him, letting out a strangled growl.

He looked down to see Ethelinda's mouth filled with blood. He smiled brightly down at the snake.

"How dare it try to crush me" the snake was muttering to herself, and Harry couldn't stop his laugh, making the other's look at him weirdly.

They said nothing though, and they headed through to the end of KiddieLand, into an alleyway going by the side of a food area, once again all out of food, much to Coach's dismay.

The alleyway led them down to another staff section, with two small buildings ahead of them.

They cleared the area first, making a move to the first building. The building gave them no way out, and held nothing important in it that they could take with them and use. They hoped the second building would not be the same.

The second building was in fact a whole lot better, mainly based on the fact it held some fresh ammo for them all. They ignored the two human bodies next to the ammo, Coach uttering a quiet prayer, when they found a ladder leading onto the roof of the building.

Ellis chucked a pipe bomb onto the roof before they climbed up; not knowing what was up there. The telltale explosion told them it should be clear, and they hesitantly climbed the ladder taking them to the vast expanse of the top of the building.

They crossed the expanse of roof and found that it led them back to the main amusement park, more specifically, at the top of a giant slide ride. Ellis beamed when he saw it.

Ellis immediately set to firing at the zombies at the bottom from the top. Harry knew exactly what Ellis was planning, but it made him smile to think that Ellis could find it in him to make the most out of what he had. Harry joined in with him, Rochelle copying too. Coach and Nick took care of the zombies coming up the stairs.

When the area looked clear, Ellis turned to the group expectantly. "So, who wants a race?" he grinned.

"You can young'un, but count me out. I'm too old for that sorta thing" Coach replied softly. Nick's expression was enough of an answer.

"It can be yer first ride Har" Ellis said, trying to cajole Harry into it, but Harry didn't need cajoling; he had already made up his mind.

"I'll win" he answered simply, making Ellis laugh.

"I suppose you boys will need adult supervision" Rochelle said seriously, but her face was lit up in mirth.

"I'm gonna go down this slide now" Harry hissed quietly at Ethelinda. "Do you want to come or shall I let one of the men hold you?"

Ethelinda was quiet for a moment, and she seemed to be examining both the slide and Coach and Nick. "The men" she answered eventually.

"Nick, look after my snake for a moment please" Harry said to Nick, who flashed a look of amusement before hiding it.

"How?" the conman questioned, looking uneasy.

Harry moved forward and ushered Ethelinda onto Nick, who seemed to squirm as she settled herself.

Harry ran back to the slide where Rochelle and Ellis were already seated.

"Ready?" Ellis grinned, and they took off down the slide. For a slight moment it gave Harry a sense of joy, and it made him feel so good, even if it was just for a moment.

"I think that was a tie" Coach muttered from beside them, at the end of the staircase. Nick ran forward, handing the snake back over to Harry.

Harry grinned and thanked Nick, who shuddered, and they found another staircase to take them back to another part of the amusement park.

They crossed by another storage room, and onto a pavement overlooking a carousel. In the near distance they could see what looked like a Tunnel of Love ride. A distant crying could be heard faintly as well.

They jumped down from the platform, attracting the attention of the zombies who had been sitting idly around. There wasn't an awful lot, and the many fences surrounding them seemed to be the reason why. They killed the group easily, not looking forward to going to the other side of the fences.

"We're gonna have to go through the carousel" Coach noted, looking around.

The carousel had a gate up, blocking their path, but there was a control panel which would enable them to open it.

"I bet this makes a loud noise" Harry said wincing as they neared the control panel. Everything they touched seemed to make a noise.

Typically, that was the case once again, and the carousel started up, opening the gate and allowing them through. They broke into a run, trying to get through rather than fight all the zombies that had appeared.

"The switch is over there" Rochelle called, heading over to the switch which would turn the carousel off. As she pulled it, a Hunter seemed to come from nowhere, landing on top of her. She cried out, and they rushed towards her, shooting at the Hunter and ignoring the others for the moment.

They killed the Hunter easy enough, but not before it could take swipes at Rochelle. She wasn't fatally injured, but the gashes were bleeding quite heavily, although they didn't look overly deep. Coach helped her up, and he allowed her to latch onto him as she limped forward, the other three attempting to cover them as best as they could.

The noise being stopped meant that no more zombies were coming, but there was still enough there. They ran backwards, trying to shoot and get away at the same time.

"Witch!" they heard Coach call, and they looked to see a Witch just ahead of them, already angrily looking around as Coach and Rochelle had hobbled past her and into a safe room that they had found in the Tunnel of Love.

"Us again?" Ellis complained, looking at the Witch wearily, while Nick and Harry took care of the zombies behind them.

"I'd say just run for it" Harry said, looking at the distance to the safe room. It wasn't overly far away, and there seemed to be nothing in the way of it. The witch was to a side too, so that could be an advantage to them. "You two go first" he ushered them, and they complied with the instructions.

Harry knew he was a quick runner, especially in danger, so he gave the others a head start before he broke into a run. The Witch did notice them, and he could hear her loud scream, but he didn't turn around to see what she was doing. Instead he literally jumped into the safe room, slamming the door shut behind him and pulling the lock. He scrambled back as the Witch collided with the door. She screamed as she tried to scratch through it, but she had no luck and after a while she ran off screaming loudly.

Harry sighed in relief and turned around to see Rochelle slumped on the floor, already bandaged up. Her eyes were shut and he looked up at Coach in concern.

"She's just asleep" he answered, half smiling, half frowning. "I figured we might as well all rest here; give chance for Ro to heal."

Harry nodded, looking around the safe room. It was all one room, in the queue section of the ride, but it seemed more secure than the last one. There were also two tables, which Nick and Coach were propping up against the doors to protect them better.

"We'll take it in turns to keep watch" Coach explained. "Me and Nick, then Harry and Ellis, or the other way round."

"I'm not all that tired" Ellis offered.

"Yeah, I can stay up now" Harry said. His limbs were aching but he wasn't tired in the sleeping sort of way; he didn't mind letting Coach and Nick rest first.

"I'll leave my watch out. Wake us up in two or three hours" Nick said, leaving his watch on the floor beside them.

Coach seemed to fall asleep immediately, while Nick hid himself in a corner, eyes shut, but his body seemed to be not fully shut off.

Harry and Ellis stayed quiet for a while, before they were sure that all of the others were asleep.

"Man, you really do some crazy stuff" Ellis said to him, quietly laughing.

They were sat side by side against the back wall, allowing them to cover both ends but still be able to talk to each other comfortably.

"I have a habit for doing that" Harry admitted.

"Sounds like my buddy Keith. He liked to do all sorts of stuff, only he wasn't so lucky. He's been in and out of hospital who knows how many times" Ellis grinned.

"So this Keith, was he your best friend?" Harry asked.

"Aha, ever since we were seven. He was new in town, and on his first day he sat next t' me in class. I was playing that game where you stab the pen between your fingers, and he decided to try with scissors...he ended up stabbing himself with them o'course. I apologised to him in the nurses room and he just laughed and we were friends ever since. We might as well have been brothers; we saw each other so much." Ellis had a fond smile on his face as he remembered his friend. "He was one of the first to evacuate though. He got the first chopper out with my Ma. I told 'em not ta worry about me; I had made a 99% safe truck to look after me."

"What happened?" Harry enquired, imagining what sort of contraption Ellis could have made.

"The other 1% was apparently the most important part" Ellis laughed. Harry wasn't sure why Ellis found it funny, but he wasn't going to deny the boy his happiness.

"I never thought I'd be in a Tunnel o' Love again" Ellis murmured, changing the subject.

"This is my first time" Harry said, looking up at the bright starry ceiling of the ride.

"Last time I was in here was with a girl. She wa' my first kiss. It was horrible and she dumped me the next day" Ellis grimaced. "Do you have a special someone at home?"

"Not really, no" Harry said thoughtfully, staring at the table by the door. "I had a couple of people interested but I don't know, they don't really seem my type."

"What's the matter with 'em?" Ellis asked, looking at Harry curiously.

"Well one of them is like a sister to me, and the other, well, me and him did not get on at school at all, and it's only lately that he's started acting interested, so it's confusing" he answered, not noticing Ellis' intake of breath at mentioning a male.

"So, er, he huh? As in a boy?" asked Ellis dumbly.

"Yeah. Most witches and wizards are bi. We don't have a problem with it" he muttered. He knew homophobia was a problem in the muggle world, but he hoped it wouldn't be held against him in a zombie apocalypse.

"Oh no, I don't have a problem with it" Ellis answered quickly. "It' just cool that you can be so open." Ellis seemed to be blushing awkwardly, and with a quick glance at both doors, Harry turned his attention to Ellis.

"Are you-?" he began, not finishing his sentence in order to avoid Ellis feeling more awkward.

"I think so...maybe. My ma told me it was wrong, but I don't see why. And I mean, it just don't feel right with girls. I thought that Zoey girl were pretty, but that's all. I've felt stronger things towards guys but I don't, I mean, I've only ever kissed girls and..." Ellis trailed off, looking away from Harry, his blush even stronger than before.

Harry wasn't exactly experienced, he had only ever kissed Seamus, or rather Seamus had kissed him while they were both drunk at a celebration party, but still, it had helped clear up the confusion he had been feeling over his sexuality.

"I mean, if you wanted" Ellis continued, looking anywhere but Harry, "or if, you know, you could, er, maybe you could, you know, like my first kiss with a girl was in the Tunnel of Love and..." Ellis stopped rambling again, but this time he looked at Harry, a determined gleam in his eyes. "Ahh to Hell with it" he exclaimed, and he leant forward, pressing his lips firmly against Harry's.


	9. Nine

Harry gasped as Ellis' warm mouth moved against his. It felt unlike anyone else he had kissed before; it was much more electric and it felt like it was meant to be. Ellis' hands gripped his shirt and pulled him nearer. They broke apart as Ethelinda hissed in pain, causing both of the boys to jump; they had forgotten she was there.

"Well shit, I guess I'm gay" Ellis said breathlessly, grin spread across his face and his cheeks flushed. Harry was not in a much better state.

"These young humans are too active with their mouths" the snake was hissing angrily, coiling tighter around Harry's chest as if to punish him.

"Stop it" he hissed back to Ethelinda, in the meantime refusing to look Ellis in the eye.

"Yeah, definitely" Ellis was mumbling to himself, the goofy smile still prominent on his face. "Hey, wait. Did you just hiss at that snake?" the mechanic asked, realising what Harry had just done. It didn't seem to put him off Harry however, and he scooted over until he was sat right by his side.

Harry nodded slowly, finally looking at Ellis fully to monitor his reaction. Ellis didn't seem the least bit fazed and his grin returned even wider.

"Oh man! That's so cool. Can all magical folk speak it?" Ellis asked enthusiastically.

"It's called Parseltongue, and it's really uncommon. It's a long story but technically I was never supposed to know it, but yeah, I guess it's handy now" Harry answered, smiling at the Georgian.

"So that's how you know so much about it and how you know it won't bite. Does it have a name?" Ellis said, pointing at the snake curled protectively around Harry.

"Ethelinda" he stated.

Ellis cautiously reached his hand out, lingering it above the animal's body, before it slowly came down to stroke the snake. Ellis' fingers brushed gently against Harry's chest as he did so and their eyes locked.

Harry inched nearer to the other man, reaching out to him, when a loud growl came from behind one of the doors.

In a flash Harry and Ellis had grabbed their guns, pointing it at the offending door.

Harry got up and crept towards it, listening out for any tell-tale signs that the door was being damaged or attacked. He crouched down, peeking through the small gap that had been left by the table. A Hunter was creeping around outside, not particularly paying any attention to the room, which Harry was glad of. The soft groaning of other zombies could be heard a lot louder, and there were a number of them wandering idly around, some looking as if they were throwing up, while others were draped across the floor.

He backed away, not wanting to alert them to the human presence.

"What's goin' on out there?" Ellis enquired, gun still raised threateningly.

"Just some zombies. They haven't noticed us. It's kind of sad really" Harry mused. "They just look like sick people, not zombies or anything. It's almost as if when they see us they suddenly turn into monsters but otherwise they could almost be human."

"Yeah, well back in Savannah I recognised a lot o' them zombies; I bet Coach did too, but the thing is, they do become monsters and it's kill or be killed. Heck, I had to shoot my old math teacher, and it ain't easy, but I wanna survive, so you gotta stop thinking of 'em as almost human, because they're not. Besides, otherwise the guilt'll kill you before they do. I'm sorry if it sounds harsh, but I don't wanna lose you, or anyone else for that matter" Ellis said, nodding.

Harry had to admit that no matter how tough it was to admit, what Ellis said was the truth. It was sad and cruel, but it was still the truth. The zombies were not the people that they once were, and they had no qualms about killing, so having reservations would not help in the slightest.

"Sucks, don' it?" Ellis continued, getting up to stand by Harry, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "But we're gonna get to New Orleans an' everything will work out."

"Why New Orleans?" Harry enquired; he had never actually been told why their destination was New Orleans, other than something to do with a map.

"Oh yeah, you weren't with us when we found it; I forget, ya know? It feels like we've all been together fer ages. But back in a hotel in Savannah we found a map with all the cities crossed out in the area. The nearest safe place was N'awlins."

Harry nodded to show he was listening. They sat back down, wrapped together for comfort. They didn't really have much need for keeping watch, but they fought their tiredness just in case, talking quietly about their school memories. Ellis seemed a lot more interested in Harry's stories, and the Gryffindor hadn't even gotten round to the interesting bits yet.

After a couple more hours they woke up Nick and Coach, and both of them settled down into an uneasy sleep.

\---

Harry was running down a path in the forest, growls and screeches coming from all around him, the monsters hidden by the trees. Rochelle and Coach were lying dead behind him, chests slashed open. Nick had long been carried off by a Tank.

Now there was Ellis, Ellis being ripped open by a Witch as he stood by and did nothing. He opened his mouth to scream but no sound came out.

He dashed to Ellis' side as the Witch ran off screaming, and he cradled the body in his arms. He brushed Ellis' hair off the damp forehead, the hair turning red beneath his fingers, the facial features becoming narrower. Ron opened his eyes, anger lighting them.

"You did this to me" he groaned, stretching his hands to touch Harry's face. Harry yelped and jumped backwards, hitting something soft.

He spun around, coming face to face with Hermione, her face deathly white, blood pouring from her mouth, eyes and teeth, her sharpened teeth.

"You deserve to die for what you did" she spat, bringing a claw to his face. She began her slash and -

"Harry! Harry!" someone was calling. "Wake up Kid."

Harry blearily opened his eye. Nick's face came into view.

"You were having a nightmare" Nick explained. "I, you know, I didn't want you to disturb Rochelle."

"Ro ain't the only one you're worried about Nick" Coach said, a knowing look on his face. The oldest man was crouched down by Rochelle, looking tenderly at her injuries.

"Is she-?" Harry began, cut off by Nick's nod.

"She's fine. Coach is just checking on her" the conman answered. "He's pretty protective of her" he added quietly as an afterthought.

Harry nodded and sat up, ignoring the trembles still running through his body. Ethelinda was on the floor beside him, looking at him worriedly, while Ellis was still asleep, but he had seemed to sense Harry's discomfort and his hand was still gripped tightly on Harry's arm.

"You okay?" Nick asked him, looking uncomfortable; being nice was not the man's forte.

"Not really" he answered honestly. "But I'm used to nightmares."

Nick grimaced but said no more, patting Harry's shoulder slightly before he stood, looking around.

"What you reckon Coach? We okay to move now?" Nick called.

"I think so" came the reply.

Coach shook Rochelle awake gently, while Nick kicked Ellis in the legs.

"Rise and shine hillbilly" Nick sang to the mechanic, who jumped up with a start. He looked around wildly for a minute, before adjusting his cap which had become slightly skewed in his sleep. Harry thought the fact it had stayed on at all was a miracle.

Rochelle seemed to be fine now, with only slight pain, but she was happy to move on. They reloaded their guns, moved the tables back to their original positions and opened the door into the ride.

The Tunnel of Love was a long pink tube, with a shallow river complete with swan boats and a painted starry ceiling.

"This is pretty" Rochelle exclaimed gleefully, while Nick muttered something about women being pleased easily.

"I've had a proper starry ceiling before" Harry reminisced. "It was, er, made of glass and my school was in the middle of nowhere so when there were no clouds we could see out fine, but this is nice in here. I think we should stay."

"Gross" Nick muttered, shooting ahead at some zombies.

The problem with the tunnel, as they found, was that it was bendy and so they could only see just ahead of them. The zombies were lacking slightly, which was a nice change, but they had often found that the less zombies there were, the bigger the problem that would come along.

They shot their way through, eventually coming to a dead end where the ride had collapsed slightly.

"I think the maintenance room leads through" Coach suggested, opening a door. They had no other choice and so they followed Coach into the room.

They took a staircase up to another room, which had a hole leading back down into the Tunnel of Love.

"Ladies first?" Nick offered to Rochelle.

"You seem to like that philosophy, don't you Nick?" Rochelle cut back, referring to a time in Rayford where Nick had said the same thing.

The man in the suit shrugged, only to be pushed forward by Rochelle. Nick lost his balance and fell through the hole, swearing at Rochelle as he went. Rochelle laughed as the others jumped down behind him.

The place was deserted, so much so that it was unnerving.

A low mumbling could be heard around them, that of a Charger.

Harry had always thought that the Chargers seemed to be able to speak somewhat, unlike the other zombies, and this one seemed to be trying to utter something that sounded very familiar, although Harry couldn't quite place it.

"Cio. Cru. Shee" it seemed to be saying, as they ushered forward in an attempt to find it.

They stopped dead in their tracks as they stumbled across a mass of zombie bodies. As Harry looked down at them, a flash of vivid green flashed behind his eyes, a green he was very familiar with, but before he could take the image in, the Charger appeared, the word it had been trying to say finally coming out properly.

"Crucio" the creature yelled as it charged, just missing Coach. Before Harry could turn to help kill the monster, the red light hit him and he collapsed to the floor, screaming in pain as the feeling of red hot, invisible knives stabbed him over and over.

Rochelle and Coach shot wildly at the Charger as Ellis and Nick ran to Harry. Ethelinda had slithered off him and was biting into the Charger's leg.

The pain started to subside as the others took care of the Charger, and Ellis and Nick helped him to stand.

"What?" the two men both asked, but Harry shook his head, biting his lip hard to prevent him crying out anymore.

"I've, I've not felt that in a long time" he gasped out, breathing heavily as the pain subsided. Voldemort's curse had been a lot worse, but it was still something he would have rather done without.

"Sweetie, what happened?" Rochelle asked concerned.

"I don't know" he replied, mind too foggy to come up with a plausible explanation.

"You don't even look hurt, but I've never heard someone in so much agony" Coach wondered aloud, looking down at the zombies dead on the floor. "And what happened to these guys?"

Rochelle and Coach walked on ahead, as the other three moved on behind.

Harry leant up, dragging both Nick's and Ellis' ears to him.

"They're changing" he whispered. "Apparently some of them can now use magic and trust me, that is bad."

\---

The rest of the tunnel didn't take long, and they soon came out back into the theme park, opposite a large wooden roller coaster.

"The Screaming Oak! That's my favourite!" Ellis beamed, grinning widely.

They cautiously moved over to the ride, being directed there by the security fences which were in the way of the other paths.

"I think you may get your wish of going on a ride Ellis" Nick told the Georgian, examining the situation.

It did indeed look like going over the roller coaster was the only way out.

"We'll start it, then run and follow the tracks. No stopping" Coach directed, pressing the buttons to open the ride.

The gate buzzed open, and the ride car sped off, leaving them a free passage to follow.

As expected, the noise immediately brought the attention of the zombies that had been, until then, unaware of their presence. Unfortunately for them, a Tank had also been lurking nearby and was now all too interested in them.

"Shit! Run, jus' run!" Ellis cried as they almost sprang onto the tracks, breaking into a sprint as they heard the heavy footsteps of the Tank behind them.

Harry tried shooting while he ran backwards but he almost stumbled, and Nick spun him around, urging him to carry on.

The horde of zombies was coming in thick, and they were having to duck the rocks and debris flying over their heads.

They ran as fast as they could, shooting their way through the horde, trying not to be slowed down too much. The Tank showed no sign of stopping, and it chased them up and down every hill and over every bump.

Harry grasped for the dragon figurine in his pocket, holding it warmly in his hand.

"Reducto" he whispered, flinging his arm behind him. Nothing happened. He repeated the spell a bit louder, once again nothing happened.

They were nearing a dark tunnel, and he decided to lose all inhibition and he shouted the spell, this time the tracks finally shattering and breaking off. He decided he didn't very much care if Rochelle and Coach thought anything of it.

He turned triumphantly, only to see the Tank leap over the gap.

"You bloody fucker!" Harry growled at the zombie, finally losing his patience. He heard Nick snort before someone started dragging him along before the Tank could reach him.

It turned out to be Nick who was pulling him. Ellis was one of the fastest amongst them so he had ran ahead to turn off the ride to prevent more zombies from going to the area.

They sprinted over a bridge taking them to the queue area of the ride which had happened to be turned into a Safe Room. Coach had gone in ahead, managing to find a Molotov, and he came back out moments later, throwing it and igniting the Tank.

As the creature howled in pain and slowed it's movements, they took the chance to shoot blindly at it as they ran, slamming the door shut behind them. They bolted the door locks and propped a table up against it.

They pressed their ears to the thin wall, sighing in relief as they heard the tell-tale thump of the Tank dropping dead.


	10. Ten

"Everyone alright?" Coach asked as they panted, worn out from the run. The group nodded and in an instance Coach took it upon himself to shove Harry into the wall, a gun resting against his cheek. The others immediately rushed forward to help Harry, but Coach held a hand up to stop them.

"Is this some sort of sick experiment?" the man demanded, eyeing Harry furiously, who just looked back at him blankly. He gingerly stroked Ethelinda in an attempt to calm her; Coach's proximity was riling the snake.

Coach seemed to notice the movement and he backed away slightly, gun still trained on Harry.

"Are you like some mad scientist?" the older man continued. "Have you released a disease on the world to see what would happen and now you're spying on the survivors? Did you plan on meeting us from the beginning? What were those code words you were shouting? When things get rough do you call for help?"

Harry scowled and pushed Coach's gun away from his face and motioned for Ethelinda to reach towards Coach, making the man back up and give him some room.

"No Coach, I am not a mad scientist, and besides, I haven't lived the life I've lived just to create some vile disease to wipe out the population" Harry hissed. "And how dare you imply that I lied about watching my best friends, probably the people I was closest to in the world, die so viciously."

Harry could feel his temper fuelling at Coach's words, although given the circumstances and the lack of sleep, there was no wonder that tensions were running high among them. Admittedly though, Rochelle and Coach had no clue about Harry's magic, so it wasn't a shock that they had come to their own conclusions about Harry's actions. Despite Coach not really being to blame, it still couldn't stop Harry feeling annoyed with the accusations.

Coach locked eyes with him before his expression softened.

"I'm sorry young'un, I didn't mean to get angry, it's just that something seems weird about you, and I don't want to lose anyone else" Coach part way apologised, and Harry couldn't help but feel sorry for him after hearing the sorrow in his voice.

"Trust me Coach, I've been around weird my whole life, and I'm only trying to help you all out" he responded, his own voice lower as well.

"Why?" Coach asked simply. Rochelle was looking intently at him too.

He sighed and looked at Ellis and Nick. The conman shrugged while Ellis grinned and nodded.

"I'm…a, um, wizard" he told Coach and Rochelle awkwardly, holding tightly onto Ethelinda; not that he was planning set the snake on anyone but they didn't know that.

The pair both looked at him as if he had grown an extra head, before Coach shrugged.

"You know what? Just a few days ago I'd have checked you into the nearest mental hospital but now I think anything is possible" the man muttered, pressing a hand to his temple.

"Wizard, as in you can do spells, wizard?" Rochelle asked with a grin on her face. She didn't seem put out by the revelation at all.

"Look, I know it seems strange but just believe me" Harry begged, and Coach nodded, as did Rochelle. "Good, but look, I can't do much magic at the moment because I don't have my wand, so I'm trying to find one and when I do it will come in very handy. I should be able to get my hands on one in New Orleans."

"Right, we just gotta find you a new wand in New Orleans" Coach repeatedly dumbly, and Rochelle smirked.

"I think it's pretty awesome" Rochelle said, eyes lit up.

"I'm gettin' too old for this world" Coach muttered, shaking his head.

"Aw, come on Coach, all this excitement should make you feel young again, er, not that I think you're old or anything, but-"Ellis stammered awkwardly, breaking off when Coach started to chuckle.

"I guess one day nothing'll surprise me no more" the older man smiled. "I know you said you can't do much magic at the moment, but I don't suppose you can get me a cheeseburger can you?"

"Not out of thin air, no" Harry answered, causing a disappointed look to cross Coach's face. "I might be able to multiply food once we get our hands on some though" he added as an optimistic afterthought.

"That is so cool" Ellis said excitedly, almost jumping on the balls of his feet.

"So can we just clear up what you can and cannot do?" Coach asked, turning everyone's attention fully back on Harry.

"There are lots of spells, so I guess theoretically I could do anything. Only thing is the more powerful the spell, the more energy it takes, so I can't really do more than two at a time if I'm lucky. I'm hoping my body might start getting used to it, but at the moment I'm trying to save it for when it will really help; like with Tanks and things."

The others seemed fairly happy with the answer despite the limitations it expressed.

Coach nodded and cleared his throat. "Alright. Well we've already wasted enough time. Let's get a move on people."

The group followed Coach's lead and grabbed hold of what they could from the room and topping up their ammo.

When Coach seemed satisfied that everyone was ready, he opened the door, leading them back into the open area of the amusement park.

They shot at the nearby zombies, taking out as many as they could before they noticed them. Harry found that killing the general infected seemed to be getting easier for him, not that he was overly pleased with that.

Indeed, he felt a rush of guilt run through him as a single bullet from his gun went straight into the chest of a teenage zombie, killing it instantly.

"Good job kid" Nick complimented, twirling a pistol in his hand before shooting. Why Nick enjoyed guns so much was beyond Harry.

They headed down a stretch which was decorated with fairy lights dangling above them, attached to a number of poles dotted about. Set amongst the early morning sky they looked incredibly eerie. The path came out into a picnic area; Coach's stomach growled appropriately.

"Would you believe it? Not a single scrap of food left over" he moaned, punching a zombie that had run at him as if it was their fault that the food was gone.

A rumbling growl reached their ears, and they span around, trying to find where the Boomer was hiding.

They inched forward slowly, all taking a different direction to watch as the growling got louder.

Rochelle was the unlucky one. As it jumped in front of her she panicked and fired, causing the Boomer to explode and cover her in the sticky green goo.

Almost instantly a crowd of zombies appeared from nowhere, ignoring everyone but Rochelle. They swarmed to her, backing her into a wall, where she tried desperately to punch and shoot them off. The others tried to shoot as much as they could, and Coach eventually decided to get in there himself and throw them off the girl; so long as the Boomer bile still lingered on her they wouldn't go for him so he was perfectly safe to do so, providing he worked quickly.

As Coach worked on the small horde, Nick, Ellis and Harry were on alert for another infected that they could hear nearby; a Spitter.

Much to their displeasure, she showed herself by spitting acid at them, making them yelp and scramble away from the burning liquid. Ellis shot at her retreating form and she collapsed, melting in her own goo.

Rochelle had managed to avoid any injuries bar a few scratches, and the group were ready to move on. They looked around, trying to find a way that they could go; CEDA had a lot more fences up in this area.

"Through the bumper cars" Nick called; pointing to where there was a small gap they could get through on the other side of the ride.

"My cousin loved Dodgems" Harry said casually as they clambered over the queue fences and onto the ride platform. "He'd come home bragging about how many people he had bashed into. I guess for him it was a socially acceptable way to bully people."

"He sounds nice" Nick said sarcastically, and Harry simply pulled a face. He hoped Dudley wasn't a zombie, but he certainly didn't miss being bullied by him.

They walked around the empty cars and left the ride through the fire exit, which took them through a small, narrow room before opening up to the outside again.

They heard a coughing from the other side, and they stilled for a moment before tentatively moving forward, Nick in the lead.

Just as they reached the opening a thick long tentacle darted through, flying past Nick and wrapping itself around Harry and yanking him into Nick. Ethelinda bit down as Nick fired, and the dual attack made the Smoker screech and loosen the tongue. Nick popped his head round the corner to check that the creature was dead, and then he turned back with the most genuinely amused smirk Harry had seen on the conman.

"It really isn't funny anymore" Harry stated. Ellis sniggered from behind him.

The Gryffindor scowled but followed Nick forwards. They turned a corner, leading them into a small but crowded area. They could see a safe room below them, blocked by a high ledge and fence. There was no way they'd be able to climb over; the fence didn't look that sturdy and the drop would have been too high even if they managed it. They silently agreed they'd have to find another way round.

A number of stalls were scattered about the area, most of which were boarded up, and a large brown barn was up and across from them, the doors broken off the hinges and lying across the ground.

The easily killed the zombies that had come running at them, but the sound of crying always got Harry slightly panicky, and that was all he could focus on now. Witches tended to sit in awkward places, and Harry really hoped that she wouldn't be this time.

They edged forward, turning off their flash lights in case they ran into the Witch at short notice. Harry had seen a startled Witch in action and he liked to make sure that wouldn't happen again.

As they neared the barn the crying got louder, and they crept inside, trying not to fall as they walked almost in the dark.

A glowing pair of red eyes landed on them, and they instantly jumped to the side, hiding from the Witch's view. Her crying had stopped and she was making small confused growls.

Ethelinda slithered off Harry and went along the ground, coming back moments later.

"She is hidden slightly by a wall" the snake told him. "She can only see you when she looks a certain way. I will keep watch and let you know when it is safe to run."

Harry nodded and the Copperhead moved back out to the front.

"Now" she hissed, and Harry urged them forward.

"Quickly" he whispered. The gang were happy to comply unquestionably and moved as quickly as they could, avoiding the confused Witch's gaze. They hurried to move away from her, turning their lights back on and going through a door to a large but empty room.

"I worry when it's this dead" Rochelle admitted quietly.

"Dead probably wasn't the best choice of words" Harry murmured, glancing around nervously. He knew what Rochelle meant though; when the general infected stayed away, it was normally a sign something worse had scared them away.

They listened out for any sort of noise, but could hear nothing, but they still cautiously wandered back to the outside.

They gathered together, looking up at the roof which it appeared they would have to climb across, but as they stepped forward to go, a hand grabbed hold of Harry's wrist and he felt a familiar wooden object being placed against his temple.

"Well Harry Potter, it appears even in his death you underestimated the Dark Lord" a voice hissed in his ear, and he felt a chill run through him as he glanced sideways, looking directly at the crazed looking face of Antonin Dolohov. He told Ethelinda to get off him and leave the man alone unless he asked her to attack; he didn't want to risk Antonin cursing someone in a panic.

The others turned, shock of hearing another human voice evident on their faces, and they looked confused as to what Dolohov was doing, but Nick came to realise what was happening first, and he raised his gun threateningly but Harry shook his head.

"Leave it Nick" he warned, and Dolohov laughed in a way which reminded Harry of Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Yes, leave it Nick" he mimicked, pressing the wand to Harry harder. "Can't have these muggles fighting their betters now, can we?"

The foursome looked confused, and Harry had no idea what to do. He'd have to play it safe for now; any rash action could cause a similar result from the Death Eater, and that would likely end up with someone dead.

"Why are you even here?" he asked instead, making Dolohov laugh further.

"You think the Dark Lord didn't know what he was doing? No, no, no, he knew what he was doing. Couldn't let the filth live. Couldn't let the filth live. We faked our deaths; we followed you, followed you here. But his plan didn't work as it should. It didn't work! It killed them too, twisted Yaxley into something huge and wrong. We weren't meant to kill you, we were meant to save you, take you back, give them the cure in exchange for you, but it got them instead. It got them all. It won't get me though, it won't get me. I'm gonna kill you like I did your werewolf, I'm going to-." Dolohov stopped ranting all of a sudden and let out a growl, the wand snapping in his hands. He let go of Harry in shock and Ellis grabbed him quickly, pulling him back and standing in front of him protectively.

Meanwhile Antonin was staring at his hands in terror, and then Harry saw the large chunk missing from his arm, surrounded by green goo. None of their wounds had become infected like that.

They watched transfixed as the man's hands split open slightly, claws stabbing their way through the ends of his fingers. Blood began to drip from his mouth and nose, and his eyes clouded over as all colour seemed to drain from his skin.

"He's turning" Harry whispered, horrified.

A gunshot went off, and Dolohov fell forward, collapsing in a heap on the ground. Nick shot the body through the skull a number more times, until there was no denying that he was dead.

"What you doin' Nick? He mentioned a cure!" Ellis cried and Nick turned to him with such a viscous expression that it made even Ellis back down.

"He was turning into a zombie Ellis. He wasn't a friendly to begin with, so I don't think we'd have all sat down and had a nice chat with a Hunter about a cure" Nick growled, and Ellis sighed in defeat.

Harry said nothing, still horrified at what the Death Eater had said. If Harry had understood correctly, Voldemort had a direct involvement in the infection somehow, almost like a back-up plan for if and when he died. They had never thought of the Dark Lord doing anything like that. If only they had researched properly then maybe the whole thing would have never happened. But then again, perhaps Voldemort had planned to release the disease anyway, and the fact he had released it earlier than planned was why it wasn't working like the Death Eater's had thought it would.

He dropped to his knees and crawled over to the broken wand.

"I don't suppose any of you have any sellotape on you?" he asked, greeted by people shaking their heads. He pocketed the pieces anyway; if he could fix it then it could help him a bit more, despite how temperamental it would be.

"This was the wand that killed a man very close to me" he told the others sadly, and Ellis wrapped an arm comfortingly round his shoulders as he helped him up.

"I'm sorry" the mechanic said gently, and Harry shook his head to avoid the memories.

"I suppose though, that I really, really have to get back home now. Apparently that's where this whole thing started and that's where the cure should be, as long as they were being honest" Harry said, and to his surprise Coach nodded and stepped forward.

"I didn't know much of what that man was on about, but I'll do anything to make the world like it used to be, even if it means escorting you back to England."

"How are we gonna get to England exactly?" Ellis enquired. "It's hard enough gettin' to New Orleans."

"Well we'll go there first" Coach answered. "We'll get Harry his, his er, wand, and then he'll be able to get us there."

"Alrighty then, let's go to New Orleans!" Ellis cheered happily, smile faltering as a thought struck him. "How exactly are we gonna get out of this place though?"

"Haven't you noticed the helicopter flying around? We're gonna flag it down" Coach said, looking thoroughly impressed with his own plan. The others looked at him for more details and he grinned. "That safe room was in the stadium, and the Midnight Riders were supposed to have been playing there. Their light show is not gonna go unnoticed."

"Coach, that's brilliant" Rochelle complimented, and the older man actually blushed.

They finally got round to climbing up onto the roof, and as they looked down the side they could see a pile of zombie corpses looking almost like they were sleeping. Harry expected that Dolohov must have used the Killing Curse on them all.

The rooftops were clear, and it took them to the area that they needed to be at. A very deserted evacuation centre was placed before them.

There were still no other zombies around, a fact that was putting everyone on edge. Dolohov couldn't have cleared the entire area, especially not when the infection had clearly messed with his mind as well.

They wandered into a courtyard area which acted as the entrance for the stadium, where a gate was blocking the path to the safe room.

"Let me guess; to open it will involve a loud noise which will attract every zombie in the area" Nick mused bitterly, kicking the wall when he spotted the lever that would open the gate. "You ready?"

"Wait Nick, I found some'in'" Ellis called, running over to where he had seen something glimmering. He picked the object up; a rather dangerous looking katana. "What a beauty" he grinned.

Nick rolled his eyes and pulled the lever, the gates opening and setting off loud carnival music.

The path looked rather simple; a long and narrow path with the safe room just round the corner at the end, but then the zombies came.

Harry had never seen so many in his life; the path was basically covered with them. It was like they had all gathered in the same area, waiting to attack.

"We're gonna have to run for it" someone yelled, and then they all went, shooting wildly and punching their way through. Ellis went first, swinging the sword and beheading some of the creatures.

Harry didn't even have time to think about what he was doing; he just wanted to get through.

The zombies were scratching and biting at the survivors, surrounding them on all sides.

They could get to the safe room as long as they stayed on track and didn't get over swarmed.

It seemed for every zombie they killed ten more would appear. A Hunter had almost pounced on Nick, stopped by Ellis' katana, and a Charger had only been stopped from pummelling Coach because even he couldn't get through all the zombies.

They battled on, and were now just near the corner which would take them to safety.

Just as Harry was hoping for the best, an especially hard swing hit him on the side, and the dragon figurine he had forgotten about went flying from his pocket.

In a moment of horrified desperation he lunged for it, realising his mistake before he hit the ground.

His hand just missed the dragon, and in a second the zombies were on top of him, tearing into his skin. He tried to edge forward, determined to get hold of the figure, but the zombies were holding him back. He screamed as a particularly sharp claw dug into the arm he was reaching out of the zombie group to grab the dragon with. He glanced up and saw a Hunter waiting. The creature looked desperate to pounce, but he seemed rather content slashing Harry's arm for the moment.

He cried out again as the zombies on him dragged their sharp nails his back and sides, some of them pulling sharply at his hair.

The attacks stopped suddenly and he heard the whooshing of metal in the air, and Ellis' pants as he swung the katana crazily through the group.

Harry was now able to reach for the dragon, although then the Hunter would then be able to get him. He had no choice though, and he only hoped Ellis would stop the Hunter before it did too much damage to him.

He forced himself to move, hand closing over the figurine as the Hunter pounced. It took a swipe over his face, claws ripping over his lightning bolt scar. The pain that struck then was far worse than anything else he had felt in his life. His voice felt hoarse from screaming, and he couldn't see anything, mind clouded from visions of Voldemort; Voldemort chanting, him walking through the Chamber of Secrets, more chanting, images of people with blood dripping from them in rituals.

The images stopped and the pain in his scar subsided, allowing his mind to clear. He felt a sudden though about his father and so whispered 'Expecto Patronum'. The stag grew from his hand, and he watched as it galloped amongst the zombies, the bright light causing many of them to collapse to the floor, covering their eyes in pain, while others seemed to run away.

He vaguely noted that he was being carried, the stag running alongside him.

A door was slammed shut and then Harry knew no more.


	11. Eleven

Harry groaned, turning his head to the side and noting that his arms were wrapped around something warm. Every part of him ached and he couldn't bring himself to open his eyes; afraid of what he might find. He heard muffled words above him, and it slowly dawned on him that he was resting against a body, seated upright with his head against a chest, his legs tangled with another pair and arms pulling him into the warm body; the connecting hands rubbing his stomach and sides gently.

He was picking up on other voices now and the words were getting clearer.

"I told ya already Coach; no," the voice from above him said. The Georgian accent he could now pick up on told him that it was Ellis. He tightened his grip around the man's torso.

"I'm not suggesting we leave him here for good," Harry heard Coach mutter. "I'm just sayin' we go out and do what we need to do and come back for him once we're done. We don't know how much longer that helicopter's gonna be out there."

"We ain't leaving him," Ellis retorted, voice raised slightly. "What if something happened to him while we were gone? Or maybe we could all die out there and then what?"

"Never thought I'd say this, but Ellis has a point," Nick's voice said, closer than Harry had expected. "It's safer for all of us if we stick together; besides, it's kind of harsh leaving the kid behind."

"I'm torn," Rochelle chipped in. "I'd feel bad leaving Harry, but it's not like we wouldn't come back for him. It's just-"

"If we can get back to him" Nick supplied.

"Well I'm not goin' anywhere without 'im" Ellis declared, and fearing a full blown argument was imminent, Harry forced himself to open his eyes.

Somebody made a hushing noise and all eyes were then on the teen.

"What happened?" he groaned, acting as if he hadn't just listened to their conversation about him.

He turned in Ellis' arms so that he could face everyone; the Southerner's arms somehow still not releasing him.

He glanced upwards to see Ellis beaming, though his eyes were rather red. Coach and Rochelle looked happy to see he was awake, though they appeared a little guilty, while Nick was giving him a look which told him the conman knew he had heard everything.

"You were lucky," Rochelle told him. "They were all over you; it's all thanks to Ellis that you're alive."

"It was nothin'," Ellis said sheepishly. Harry looked back at him and smiled.

"Thank you Ellis" he said softly, relaxing against the boy's form.

Nick pressed something into his hand.

"Pain pills," the conman explained. "We bandaged you up but we couldn't give these to you while you were unconscious."

Harry took them gratefully. He looked down to see that his shirt was very blood stained, and on his arms and through the rips in his clothing he could see the white of the bandages; quite a lot of it.

"It's weird though," Ellis added thoughtfully. "When I was carrying you there was a deep cut across your forehead, but it's completely gone now, only your scar wouldn't stop bleeding for ages, no matter what we did."

"I'm not surprised," Harry muttered darkly; if Voldemort had had something to do with the zombie outbreak, his scar being slashed by a said-zombie was sure to affect it.

"How are you feeling now sweetie?" Rochelle enquired, looking Harry over with her eyes. "Are you up to moving anywhere yet?"

Harry nodded and pushed himself out of Ellis' arms to stand up, ignoring his protesting limbs. The pills were slowly starting to kick in; he didn't feel as bad as he had earlier, but he was willing to move despite the pain.

"I'm not brilliant, but I've had worse," Harry said, giving the group a reassuring smile, who in return reluctantly nodded.

"Just don't exert yourself, and stay close to at least one of us at all times, alright kid?" Nick said, looking at Harry pointedly.

"Want me to hold your hand when we're crossing the road as well?" Harry cut back, rolling his eyes. Nick just smirked at him.

"That wouldn't be a bad idea considering how accident prone you are," the suited man replied, and Harry decided he wouldn't argue that. He had known for years that trouble always had a way of finding him.

Ellis pushed a gun into Harry's hands, grinning enthusiastically.

"Well let's go alert that chopper," Coach declared, signalling for them to make their move out of the safe room.

The room opened out into the concession area of the stadium, with cream walls and flooring. Only a couple of zombies were lingering about, and they were easily killed.

Ethelinda had somehow escaped the zombies that attacked Harry unharmed, and had crept back out from her hiding place once she saw Harry moving; she didn't say anything to him, but she licked his face, so Harry guessed she was happy that he was alive.

Nick and Ellis seemed to be sticking to Nick's rule, with Nick keeping behind him and Ellis to the side while Rochelle and Coach walked in front.

Harry didn't mind the men's protectiveness that much, providing they didn't try to baby him, but considering Ellis had just saved his life; he wasn't going to complain if he was around.

Coach knew where he was going, and he led them out into the main stage area. It was an outdoor arena, with a roof covering the stage and seating areas only. The venue was pretty big, with seats going most of the way round and sloping upwards.

The place seemed to be deserted, though Harry doubted it would stay that way for long. They cautiously walked over to the stage area, spotting some figures against the back wall. They raised their guns ready as they approached, but on closer examination, they saw there was nothing much left of the bodies.

Harry grimaced as Ellis went for a closer look, Nick close on his tail; Rochelle shook her head in disgust.

"I hope that isn't a bad sign," the woman sighed, and Coach laid a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

"Don't worry Ro; maybe they died of natural causes?" the older man suggested.

Ellis returned to the group armed with a number of bottles containing pain kills, each of them taking one to pocket.

"Hey Harry," Nick called, and Harry turned to face the man, who took his gun from his hands and put another in it's place.

"That's a Magnum Pistol; it's a lot better than the one you've been using," Nick told him.

Harry decided to take Nick's word for it; he had absolutely no knowledge when it came to guns.

Coach had run off to turn the lights on, the switch at the top of the seating area. The stadium was filled with beams of light, creating an eerie feel when contrasted with the early morning sky.

"I'll hit the tape deck," Rochelle muttered, heading to the side of the stage where the music system lay. She waited until Coach returned before she turned the system on.

"Alright, Ellis and Harry, you cover the front with me," Coach urged. "Nick and Rochelle, take the sides."

Harry stood to the left side of the stage, glad the pain pills had started to work.

The music was blaring loudly from the speakers, the vibrations so loud that Harry could almost feel the stage moving beneath his feet. Sparks were flying from a machine by the front of the stage, and it was definite the helicopter pilot wouldn't be able to miss it; though similarly, the zombies couldn't miss it either.

He didn't know where the zombies had been hiding before, but they were certainly not afraid of showing themselves now. They seemed to be coming from every direction, and there were more of them then Harry had ever seen in one place before.

"You okay Har?" Ellis called.

Harry nodded, not sure if Ellis could see. After what had happened before, he wasn't surprised that seeing all of these zombies brought back the memories of the previous attack so clearly, but he tried to shake the images from his head; Ellis had risked his own life to save Harry before, so he wouldn't let him die now.

They were all firing their weapons rapidly, and Harry was pleased to note that Nick had been right about his new gun being more effective. If his aim was spot on, the zombie he was shooting would die in one go, though the more that were closing in on them, the more his aim was off due to panic.

He dug his feet firmly into the ground, biting down on his lip hard. Ethelinda had slithered forward, leaning outwards and hissing dangerously at the zombies.

He heard a Charger from the right, but he could only hope one of the others could stop it; he daren't take his eyes off his side for one second.

The horde seemed to fade away as the lights flashed furiously around the stadium. The vibrations seemed to be getting louder, and were echoing through the stadium.

"Shit!" Nick yelled, as all of them waited with bated breath for the Tank to come into view.

It appeared from the opening to the concession area, and Harry suddenly felt very grateful for Ellis and Nick refusing to leave him there alone.

A Molotov flew over his head, engulfing the Tank in flames. Nick grabbed Harry's wrist and yanked him backwards, ignoring Harry's wince of pain, before standing half in front of him, giving Harry enough room to shoot as well.

They all edged backwards as the Tank advanced; the fire not as powerful as it would have been for other zombies. Rochelle narrowly missed being hit in the head with a chunk of concrete the Tank ripped up from the floor, but the creature stopped suddenly, falling to the ground with a thump.

The stadium went silent for a moment as the song stopped, before returning to life with a second, louder song and more flashing lights and flying sparks. Coach hadn't been joking about the Midnight Rider's knowing how to put on a show.

As a new wave of zombies appeared, Harry felt a jolt of pain run through him. He staggered but tried to push past it, biting his lip so hard that he drew blood.

He could feel blood pulsing from under the bandages on his arms, but he couldn't stop and let his teammates down. He fired angrily at the creatures running towards him, managing to strike a Hunter before it could pounce.

He daren't risk using the dragon figurine; it would likely drain him of energy completely which wouldn't be a safe move.

He ran backwards to avoid the acid a Spitter had aimed towards him, almost colliding with Rochelle.

Ellis fired at a box away from the stage, just in front of the seating. The result was a small explosion of silver sparks, blowing apart the zombies who were stood too close.

Coach threw a pipe bomb out towards the seats; the flashing and beeping drawing the majority of the zombies away from the stage and further away to die in the explosion.

The sound of a helicopter added to the chaos, and Harry glanced to the sky to see it circling the arena. The zombies were thinning out, but Harry was sure he could hear another Tank in the distance.

The pilot of the helicopter had deemed it safe enough to land, and the group of survivors silently agreed to make a run for it, especially considering they could hear the Tank getting nearer and nearer.

They shot their way through the lingering zombies, managing to get away from the stage right before a large piece of debris was thrown onto it.

Fireworks seemed to be erupting from machines all over the stage now, drawing even more zombies to the area; Harry was surprised there was still that many around.

They headed up the aisle to where the chopper had landed, a horde of zombies on their tail, and the Tank not too far behind.

The pilot opened the door to his side, allowing Coach and Rochelle to climb into the front, while Nick slid open the side door, letting Harry in first, before jumping in behind him and leaving Ellis to close the door.

The pilot looked horrified as he took in the scene of the monsters coming towards them, and though Harry had never been in a helicopter before, he was pretty sure most pilots would not be so quick taking off.

The dark atmosphere of the group seemed to lift instantly as the helicopter took to the air, leaving the dramatic scene behind them.

"You folks okay?" the pilot asked once everyone had caught their breath.

"Yes, we're all fine sir," Coach answered. "We can't thank you enough for picking us up."

"It's my duty. I'm Frank, by the way," the man replied.

"Well Frank, I'm Coach, this lady here is Rochelle, and in the back we have Ellis, Harry and Nick. Do you think you can fly us to New Orleans?"

"I'll try; last I heard it was still safe, but my radio's been dead for two days," Frank told them.

The man didn't talk much after that, so they settled themselves in for the flight.

"Er, Harry, yer arm…" Ellis started, taking hold of Harry's arm gently where the blood had stained the bandages.

"Don't worry, I just used it too much," Harry muttered, but Ellis wasn't buying it.

"I'll wrap it again," Nick announced, rummaging around for his first aid kit. He pulled out more bandages, and took hold of Harry's arm lightly.

"I've done this a lot," Nick answered in reply to the questioning looks Harry and Ellis were giving him as he worked almost professionally.

Harry leant back into his seat once Nick had done, shifting as Ellis moved to wrap his arm around him. He rested his head on the Georgian's shoulders; the position seemed to be comforting to the both of them. Ellis dropped his head down, and Harry swore Nick had scooted slightly closer to them as well, but by then his lack of energy had finally caught up to him, and he fell into a unsettled sleep.

\---

Harry awoke to a peculiar noise; all the time he had spent camping in the open countryside with the risk of Voldemort, Death Eaters and Snatchers around every corner meant that the Gryffindor had gotten into the habit of sleeping very lightly.

Nick had stirred too, but the other three were still asleep. He and Nick glanced at each other, freezing as the noise came again. Frank shuddered visibly in his seat before screeching, causing the other three to wake with a start.

Nick moved to his gun but Ellis leant over Harry to try and stop him.

"You can't Nick," the Southerner urged, but Nick ignored him.

"He's infected Overalls," the conman stated, placing the gun barrel to the back of the man's head and pulling the trigger.

It was afterwards that Nick seemed to realise his mistake, as he looked out of the window.

Coach had leant over, pushing Frank's body to the side and started to try every control that he could. Nick sighed and crawled into the front, holding onto the control stick.

The helicopter seemed to be dropping rapidly, despite Nick's efforts. Harry had never felt so useless, and he was sure the others felt the same, just having to sit there while Nick tried to stop them crashing hopelessly into whatever was below.

Tree tops passed their vision, so Harry imagined they would be hitting the ground momentarily. Ellis grabbed hold of one of Harry's hands so tightly he felt like it would break it, and then the chopper collided with the ground, the metal creaking as it toppled over.

"Ethelinda, are you alright? Can you see if there is anything around?" Harry hissed to the snake, who complied readily.

"It is clear," she told him on her return.

"It's safe out there," he repeated for the group. "Are any of you hurt?"

Everyone shook their heads, so they clambered out of the crashed vehicle. They had fallen in a rather deserted place; a lone road was blocked by a derailed cargo train, and only a couple of houses could be seen in the distance. The nearest landmark was a petrol station, which had a sign pinned up to the fence marking the land. It read 'NO CEDA. NO OUT!'

"I guess they didn't trust the government," Rochelle uttered upon reading the sign.

"Y'all reckon we should hold up in a carriage for a bit?" Coach asked, pointing at the train. The group nodded and moved over to the vehicle and sliding open a door at random. They shone their torches into the compartment to make sure nothing was in there, and when they were confident they climbed in, shutting the door just slightly behind them.

"Any of you have any clue where we are?" Nick said scathingly, as if he thought everyone else had been the reason for their dilemma.

"It looks sorta…swampy," Ellis mused, and Nick rolled his eyes.

"I know that; I'm not blind" Nick spat back.

"I was jus' sayin'," Ellis retorted. Harry noticed his accent seemed to get heavier when he was annoyed. "I'm not the one who shot the pilot and got us inta this situation."

"He was becoming a zombie Ellis; you know? The things that have been trying to eat us for the last few days?"

"Boys, boys, leave it okay? Both of you" Rochelle interrupted, giving Nick in particular a glare. "Question we need to be asking ourselves is how are we gonna get out of here?"

"It looks like there's a village out there. Maybe we could head there and see if there are any survivors?" Harry suggested shrugging.

"Think that's all we can do unless Ellis knows how to fix a 'copter," Coach said, looking at Ellis curiously.

"I mighta been able to back in my garage, but I ain't got no tools here and I don't think any of us could fly the whirly bird anyway, so the village idea's better."

"Well then, let's see what the swamp has to offer us," Rochelle said sarcastically, opening the doors, allowing them to make their way into the wilderness.


	12. Twelve

The group hesitantly moved away from the safety of the train carriages and started to cautiously make their move into the village.

The petrol station was surrounded by flimsy metal fencing, but as they passed through the wide gap into what was officially the boundaries of the village, Harry shuddered as a tingle ran through his entire body. The sensation lessened after the first jolt, but it was still noticeable. However, glancing at the others he could not see any signs of discomfort coming from them, so he figured it was only him who had felt it.

He tried to push the weird feeling to the back of his mind, deciding he must have just hurt himself a bit in the crash.

"You okay, kid?" Nick's voice cut through his thoughts, and Harry jerked his head around to face the older man and nod reassuringly. Nick looked sceptical. "You sure? You looked like you were zoning out."

"Er, maybe he's injured 'cause somebody decided to cause a helicopter crash," Ellis interjected bitterly. Ellis seemed to be trying to glare at Nick, but the softness in his expression prevented it from being effective, almost like it was hard for him to stay angry at the conman.

"Oh you're right Ellis," Nick retorted sarcastically. "We'd have been better off being half eaten by a zombie before crashing."

"Quiet!" Coach hissed, looking around and raising his gun, "I hear a Hunter."

They had walked through a narrow pathway which had led into the start of the housing district, although from the looks of things it didn't house anybody anymore. The air was still around them and the only noise that could be heard was a low growling.

The group gathered more focus as they edged forwards, their eyes darting in every direction as they awaited the pounce from the zombie.

The silent environment gave the survivors an advantage, as they could clearly hear the tell-tale screech of attack and pinpoint the creature's location before the Hunter was in the air before them.

With quick reflexes Harry managed to shoot the creature before it could hit someone and it fell to the floor with a thud.

They listened out for anything else that could be around, but when they could hear no more sound they moved onwards, passing through a dirt track which led them past trees and rickety shacks. The place looked entirely deserted, free of both humans and zombies.

"I wonder where everyone is," Ellis wondered out loud, saying what all of them had been thinking.

"Maybe they all managed to get away," Rochelle replied, hope evident in her voice. Harry truly wished that was the case. It would be nice to know there were other survivors out there.

The path eventually led them down to a wider area, the wooden buildings becoming larger, with faded signs above them, suggesting this was the communal area of the village. It was equally as deserted, with cars lying abandoned, but with no sign they had been left in a hurry or attacked by anything, and nothing had been boarded up. Harry didn't know whether to take that as a sign of escape or a sign that the villagers hadn't been quick enough. He hoped for the former.

The tingling across his body seemed to grow slightly stronger as they moved through the open village and down towards a river.

"I hope we don't have to get wet," Ellis hummed.

As they neared the edge, Harry could make out the body of a Charger strung up on some posts, almost like a warning to the other zombies. A bit further down and across the river there was a small wooden ferry.

Besides from the strange tingling sensation, everything seemed too calm. They had only seen a single zombie in the area, although Harry knew that could change at any moment. He wondered if perhaps the humid and heavy air of the swampland was keeping them away, and that perhaps the zombies were content staying in the shade and eating whatever came too close.

As they approached the machine which would bring the ferry back to them, Harry spotted a sign propped up by a fence just behind it. 'GONE TO VILLAGE DES MARAIS' it read in big, yellow letters.

"I guess the people living here managed to get away then," Harry spoke his thought out loud, joy soaring through him as he thought of the possibility. He didn't have any idea what the villagers were like, but it was a nice thought to know that somebody could have escaped, especially with the state that the cities and towns had been in.

"Be on alert," Coach stated, looking around cautiously before he pressed the button to bring the ferry to them. "Knowing our luck, this place isn't gonna stay quiet much longer."

Whether Coach's words had jinxed them or not, it wasn't clear, but as the metal wire span around the contraption which would bring the ferry back, the noise echoed across the vicinity and movement could be sensed around them, the sound of growls reaching their ears.

The survivors huddled together by the edge of the water, guns at the ready pointing in every direction.

A number of zombies were stumbling towards them, rising up from shaded places and from inside some of the wooden buildings. There were not nearly as many as they had faced on many occasions in the past, but still enough to be a problem if they got overrun.

The left side of them seemed to be clear, so they focused on the ones at the right and in front of them, and as they fired at the zombies running towards them, an unexpected cracking noise that resounded twice made them all flinch.

Before they could see what the cause was, a zombie seemed to appear from nowhere to the left of them and pounced, narrowly missing Rochelle.

It was then that the ferry finally arrived for them, and they scrambled onto it, slamming the gate behind them and pressing the button to take them to the other side.

The zombies didn't seem to realise that there was water in-between the ferry and the land where they had just been standing, and they ran forwards, falling into the water. It seemed though, that as well as not being able to swim, the obvious movement in the river attracted the attention of a number of alligators, who set about the monsters in frenzy.

The survivors shuddered as one of the animals turned to look at them; it's eyes were red and it was snarling loudly.

"Err, is that 'gator a zombie?" Ellis questioned, his eyes wide with morbid fascination. Harry had thought previously that animals weren't affected by the Green Flu, because according to Ethelinda, all the other snakes had been ripped apart by the Infected. It seemed though, that any animal with enough defence to not be torn apart instead ran the risk of becoming zombified.

"I think so," Harry whispered in answer to Ellis, taking a step backwards in an attempt to distance himself further from the crazed reptile, only to back into Nick. The gambler rested his hand on Harry's shoulder and leant in towards his ear.

"Wizards don't know how to handle weird creatures then?" Nick asked with a smirk, though it was short-lived as Ellis seemed to defensively slide slightly in between the two. If Coach or Rochelle found their positioning weird they didn't show sign of it.

"Actually," Harry retorted eventually, a smirk of his own forming, "I was just taken aback. I'll have you know though Nick; I've survived three instances with dragons, so a zombie alligator is nothing." He laughed as the others made a sound suggesting they didn't know whether he was joking or not. He decided to let them be unsure, otherwise he may have to explain that one of the dragons was a baby and the other was probably unlikely to attack him seeing as it was probably more grateful he had helped it escape confines and abuse underneath a bank.

The ferry jolted slightly as it hit the bank, and Rochelle slid the gate open, allowing them to step back onto land.

This side of the river was almost untouched by humanity, the only disruption to the environment being a wooden boardwalk across the marsh, and even that was broken in places, the slats sunk down into the bog.

"Reckon out best bet is to follow this walkway," Coach stated, looking around.

Rustling could be heard amongst the trees and bushes, but whatever was moving about hadn't noticed the human group yet.

"Do you mind if I travel on the ground?" Ethelinda hissed gently, startling Harry slightly. The snake had been quiet for a while, likely in shock from the helicopter crash.

"Go ahead, but stay close and come back to me if you see anything," Harry replied, setting Ethelinda onto the ground beside him. He was at least glad she seemed to be feeling better.

The boardwalk led them towards a rickety staircase, where the walkway became a higher platform. From the height they were able to see a few zombies aimlessly wandering about the swamp. They agreed not to bother shooting at them unless they noticed the survivors, just in case it alerted their presence to anything more dangerous lurking deeper in the marsh.

The platform wove round and above, not giving them much option to go elsewhere. It seemed logical though that any villagers who had escaped would have likely gone this way rather than through the wilderness.

As they neared a sheltered part of the walkway, the sound of crying reached their ears.

"Witch!" Rochelle hissed. Instantly they slowed down, taking care not to make too much noise.

Ethelinda returned to Harry, and the teenager was quite proud that she had listened to him and understood the dangers. He made a mental note that if he managed to escape the zombie apocalypse he wouldn't have any children; he would be far too over-protective of them. For a fleeting moment he imagined Ellis acting goofy to entertain a child, and he allowed a smile to grace his face at the image. That smile turned to laughter as he then imagined a kid trying to get Nick to lighten up.

He slammed a hand across his mouth and sent the group an apologetic look.

The Witch gave no indication of hearing him however, so they edged closer to the sound, hoping she wouldn't be in the way, so of course, the female zombie was sat at the bottom of the staircase leading down, directly in the middle. To make matters worse, there was no other way around, so they had to find a way to get by her. Luckily she had her back to them, allowing them to have a slight bit of help in their planning.

"Is she-is she sparking?" Ellis asked bewilderedly.

"What are you on about, Overalls?" Nick responded, rolling his eyes.

"I think he's right, Nick," Rochelle muttered darkly, leaning over slightly as she eyed the Witch.

There did indeed seem to be sparks of red coming from the zombie's body, only instead of falling to the ground, they were shooting upwards, forming a broken beam of red light just above the Witch's head.

A strange sense of déjà vu washed over Harry, and as he peered nearer, the dragon figurine in his pocket started to throb slightly. As he reached to grab it, images flashed in front of his eyes of a dark night sky and tall, overwhelming hedges; the maze from the Triwizard Tournament. They had used a Red Spark spell in the Third Task, and it looked incredibly similar to what the Witch was producing now.

The figurine was practically glowing under his fingertips now, and he realised it was beginning to feel similar to holding a wand. If this Witch had actually been a witch in her human life, then perhaps it was feeding off her magic and gaining in power.

He thought that if he was right, then a spell should get rid of the Witch easily. It was worth a shot at least; if they ran past her then she would attack, and likewise, if they shot her she would attack before they could kill her and they were the only other options.

He racked his brain, trying to think of a spell to use. Using the Killing Curse crossed his mind momentarily, but he pushed it out again. He hadn't even used that curse on Voldemort; he couldn't warrant using it on a poor woman who had simply been destroyed in body and mind by a disease that wasn't her fault. But as he thought more on it, he couldn't think of a better spell to use. The Witch needed to be killed instantly, or as close as possible to instant, otherwise she'd rip him apart, and the only other spell he thought he could use was Sectumsempra. He had used it on a Tank once, but Tanks were so big and menacing it was easier to do. From the back, when you couldn't see her claws and glowing red eyes, the Witch looked like nothing more than a woman, albeit a very pale and underweight one, but it still made things harder when the zombies looked more human.

His main dilemma lay in the fact that the Witch would have no qualms in ripping them all to pieces, but in Harry's eyes she had been human at one point, and Sectumsempra was an incredibly vicious and painful spell, not to mention the amount of blood would likely infect the swamp to an alarming degree, but at the same time, the spell was dark, but not to the same level as the Killing Curse. Unfortunately, despite being a favourite of Voldemort, the Unforgivable curse was painless, quick and easy. The Witch would know nothing and be put out of her misery, providing, of course, that the figurine worked.

He sighed as he made up his mind. He noticed the others were staring at him, probably wondering what he was about to do.

He stepped as far forward as he could and aimed his hand towards the form of the Witch. He shut his eyes, not able to bear the thought of seeing the green light, and he mustered up all the anger and hatred that he could manage, and when he imagined it was this Witch who had killed Ron, the venom inside him was so strong he shouted "Avada Kedavra," without thinking about it, only afterwards snapping his eyes open as the cries stopped in an instant.

He found himself falling to his knees, his energy drained and guilt bubbling away inside him. He barely managed to shoot most zombies without feeling bad about it, but using that curse made him feel terrible in every way possible.

"Is she dead?" he heard Rochelle ask, and a couple of shots rang out as somebody shot the body to make sure.

Ellis crouched down beside him, and he could feel Nick standing on the other side of him, and Rochelle and Coach's eyes seemed to be focused on him too. He could sense their stare stop every few seconds as they checked their surroundings.

"Alrigh'?" Ellis asked softly, gently brushing away a strand of hair that Harry had allowed to fall into his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," he lied. "It's just a tiring spell."

He glanced at Ellis and he could tell the mechanic didn't believe him, but he said no more and instead offered Harry a hand to help him stand up, squeezing it tightly before releasing him.

"That curse I used," Harry whispered, deciding to tell them in case they expected him to use it again, and because he didn't like lying to Ellis, "that curse is Dark magic and it's known as an Unforgivable Curse. The man who caused this illness, he-he murdered my parents with the curse when I was a baby. I swore I'd never use it; I didn't want to be like him, but I didn't know what else I could do. She was too much in the way and-"he broke off and stifled a sob; he hated crying but this constant fight for survival seemed so hard; it was draining both physically and mentally, and he really wanted nothing more than to be at home and cry until he could cry no more, and sleep for hours on end.

Ellis grabbed hold of him and pulled him into a tight hug, Ethelinda seemingly very content in between the pair of them.

"You ain't like that sicko, Harry. He's nothin' more than a twisted individual, and you killed her for different reasons; for the right reasons. You know she'd o' killed us in seconds," Ellis said comfortingly, and Harry nodded gently, holding onto Ellis even tighter and burying his face in his shoulder.

"And Harry, look," Nick said, and the fact he used Harry's proper name meant Nick was actually trying to be sincere. "I know you said it was a dark spell, or whatever, but shooting these things isn't nice either. But that green light just hit her and she seemed to die instantly. I mean, I don't know if she felt pain or not but-"

"She didn't," Harry interrupted. "I've been hit by that spell before, twice in fact, and it doesn't hurt."

"Well then, it's a lot kinder to these poor folk. We gotta kill them if we wanna survive, but the way you did it, well, it's more humane," Coach added, continuing what Nick had been getting at. Harry knew they were theoretically right. But being muggles, they wouldn't understand the difference between Light and Dark magic, and how it affected the caster, depending on their allegiance, but he'd try to push the thought aside and be done with it. He wouldn't use the curse again unless he really had to, and he knew not having his full attention on the zombies around them would not end well.

He reluctantly pulled away from Ellis, forcing a smile out.

"Shall we head off then?" he asked, trying to regain some normality.

They began their walk down the stairs, and Nick stepped in front of Harry, reaching his spare hand behind him and grabbing hold of Harry's t-shirt in order to guide him. Harry realised Nick was blocking most of the Witch's body from his view, and the older man kicked it into the water before Harry could pass it.

Nick let go of his shirt and acted like nothing had happened, but Harry appreciated the gesture.

It was then that he realised the platform ended, leaving nothing in front of them but water and a variety of plants and trees.

"Err, which way do you guys wanna go? There's a gap in the trees over there," Rochelle said, pointing to a gap big enough for them to walk through easily.

"Sounds alright, jus' hang on a sec'," Ellis said, reaching down to pick up a handmade Pipe Bomb that had been left at the side of the platform. He clicked it and threw it amongst the trees. The rustling and loud growls that could be heard, all by the area where the weapon was flashing and bleeping, told them it had been a good idea. The sounds ceased after the explosion, and after a moment they jumped into the water to make their way forward.

The water rose to just below Harry's knees and there seemed to be soft plant life beneath the surface which made walking difficult. He almost tripped over something twice before they had even been in the water a minute, managing to save himself with the balancing skills he gained from flying. Ellis was not so lucky and fell into the water, though he managed to land on his hands and knees. He rubbed his wrists in pain, but Ellis seemed happier that his hat hadn't got wet.

Eventually they stumbled across a narrow wooden plank to act as a walkway. This led them around the marsh, ending near dry land.

A couple of zombies were lurking there, as well as a Spitter which spat at them before being killed, though they easily managed to dart around the acid.

"Hey! Is that a safe room?" Ellis called, and Harry looked to see where the mechanic was pointing; towards a door underneath a bridge which had a crudely drawn house painted on it.

The group sprinted towards it, flinging open the door and rushing in before slamming it behind them and pulling the bar across.

A table was the only thing inside, set out with some health supplies and ammunition. A note was resting, and Harry grabbed it to read, gasping as he saw the words written upon it.

" _To all who pass through here, good luck. We have gone to the village. Take what you need, but please think of others. May Merlin be with you._ "


	13. Thirteen

"I think we're near a Wizarding Village," Harry whispered in shock, but everyone heard what he said and stared at him in surprise.

"As in a village for wizards?" Coach questioned.

Harry nodded and looked back at the letter. Merlin was the world's most iconic magical figure, and it would be strange for muggles to use the name. It would also explain the magical Witch.

"That must be what I've been feeling," Harry said, more to himself than anything. "I can sense the magic in the air."

"So that's a good thing, right?" Ellis grinned. "You might be able to find a wand or something."

"I hope so," Harry answered thoughtfully.

"Great; looks like we're gonna have to go through the bog to reach some form of civilisation," Nick muttered, staring out of the bars of the door at the far end of the safe room. "I swear to you, Harry, if you don't find something useful after this you can give me the money for a new suit."

"Yes, because sewage and zombie guts wash out of suits just fine," Rochelle retorted sarcastically, grinning when Nick gave her the finger.

The gambler opened the door, frowning as a number of zombies ran at them.

"Seems to be a few more of these things here," he commented, as they shot at them from the safe room. Much like the swamp water had slowed them down earlier, the zombies seemed to be having the same difficulties here.

This water looked even deeper, and when Harry jumped into it the water level rose to above his waist, making it awkward to hold a gun.

Ellis and Rochelle had the same trouble and Nick sent them all a crooked grin. "Guess you should've thought of that before you stopped growing."

Rochelle rolled her eyes and shot a Hunter before it could leap at Nick. The conman sent her an apologetic look along with a smirk.

They waded through the water, leaving most of the shooting to Coach and Nick as it was easier for them. Harry had made it his task to try and stop Ellis falling over; the boy seemed to be pretty clumsy, but Harry wasn't always quick enough, meaning Ellis had a face full of water a few times.

The survivors had never been more grateful that the zombies had once been human, as it meant they still had the same physical barriers, and they had seen a number of the monsters fall into the water and they found it harder to get back up. A couple of zombies floating very still face down proved they could drown.

"Seriously, why are there so many Goddamn zombies?" Ellis growled, hitting one in the face with the back of his gun. "The village didn't look like that many people lived there."

"Maybe they managed to get to the swamp from a nearby city. They look too well-dressed to be swamp people," Nick suggested, making Ellis scowl.

"Nick, that's just an offensive stereotype," the younger man argued, but Nick ignored him.

"There's dry land over there!" Coach called out, pointing to a capsized boat lying on a verge. Harry was glad; he would have taken swimming in the Great Lake to navigating his way through the water with it's impossible to see floor for much longer.

The ground was thankfully wide spread. It had streams separating it into pathways, but it did seem to extend onwards a fair amount, and a lot of tall and narrow trees were scattered about, their full tops blocking out some of the sky.

In one of the trees, Harry could see the part eaten body of a man still attached to a parachute which had gotten stuck in the branches. Harry couldn't imagine how awful that must have been; becoming trapped and helpless as monstrous beings devoured you alive. He shuddered at the thought.

As they crept onwards, they heard the tell-tale signal of a Boomer. It was hard to place where the sound was coming from, and they could see no sign of the fat creature.

Coach stepped over to have a better look at the remains of the man in the parachute now they had reached him, but as he placed his hand on the gun which had been in the victim's pocket, the Boomer jumped from the tree in front of him, exploding on contact with the ground and coating Coach in bile which immediately caused every zombie in the nearby vicinity to come out and attack him.

Before the others could try and help Coach clear the swarm, a Jockey leapt from nowhere and took hold of Ellis, dragging him away from the others, while a Smoker's tongue typically found it's way around Harry's chest and yanked him backwards and through a bush, leaving Rochelle and Nick in a panic as to who to help.

Harry had never been so close to a Smoker before, and he was almost rested against it's cold chest as the rubbery tentacle constricted him and tried to stop him breathing. Ethelinda had been knocked off him by the tongue, and he suddenly felt so alone; he knew he was going to die alone, and he closed his eyes to welcome the darkness.

A shot rang out, making Harry snap his eyes open and for a moment he wasn't sure if he had died or not, but then Nick's face came into view. The conman grabbed Harry by the hand and pulled him back to where they had been standing before, Ethelinda crawling back onto Harry like she was used to it now.

Rochelle had managed to shoot the Jockey, and though a few zombies were still around Coach, with all of them back in the group they managed to clear them out. Coach looked like he had taken a beating; his skin looked raw and there were some jagged looking claw marks although they thankfully didn't look too deep.

"Okay, was that planned? Because that seemed like a very co-ordinated attack," Rochelle said breathlessly.

"I gotta admit; it did come across that way," Coach answered, and Harry wasn't sure if he sounded slightly nervous because he had just been attacked, or because of what was being suggested.

"But, like, the velociraptors in Jurassic Park, they planned their attacks together, and they were the worst thing Alan Grant and them had to deal with," Ellis added, and he tried to illustrate his point with his hands, making clawing motions.

"They were movie dinosaurs, Ellis, this is real life," Nick countered.

"Zombies used to be just in movies too," Harry pointed out, "but if some of them have changed forms like the Smokers and Tanks and things, surely their brains can adapt as well."

"Can we move on now? This topic is kind of freaking me out," Rochelle muttered, looking around fearfully.

They were a lot more cautious as they moved on now; their eyes were constantly darting around and each noise had them whipping their heads in the direction it had come from.

The trees began to clear, and the open sky made the area brighter and clearer.

"Is that a plane?" Ellis said suddenly, pointing into the distance.

The others followed Ellis' finger to where a large passenger plane did seem to be resting in the middle of the swamp.

"This ain't like a mirage or something, is it?" the mechanic continued, still not quite sure there was really a plane in the swamp.

"I think that only happens in the desert," Harry told Ellis, and the boy sent Harry a grin.

"This would explain the increase in zombies," Rochelle uttered, looking at the size of the plane once they reached it. It looked like a jumbo jet, and if every seat had been taken then that added an extra two hundred zombies at least to the swamp; probably more.

"I don't think we can get around it, unless we somehow climb over the top," Coach murmured, sizing up the plane and the surrounding area.

"Let me guess; we'll have to do something which will be a big attraction for every zombie nearby?" Nick said bitterly, almost laughing as their eyes zoned in on the closed emergency door on the side of the plane leading to the other side.

They moved to climb aboard the plane; the cockpit had been torn apart from the passenger seating, and about thirty bodies lay in between the two parts of the plane, likely those who hadn't survived the crash, or who hadn't been infected but killed by those who had.

Nick pulled the latch to open the emergency door angrily, and he laughed as the alarm rang out into the sky. Harry could almost feel the sound travelling through the air and into the ears of everything around them.

The survivors ran onto the wing, pulling the emergency door shut behind them; it wouldn't hold, but it would save them a bit of time.

From their vantage point, they were able to see the zombies on their side trying to climb up onto the wing, but it was the crowd of creatures trying to break open the emergency door that would be more of a problem.

Rochelle threw a Molotov as the door was finally wrenched off it's hinges, but the fire only slowed the zombies down slightly, and despite growling in pain, they still tried to attack before their bodies finally gave out.

They edged backwards, and Harry had to grab Ellis to stop him falling off the back of the wing and into the horde of zombies beneath them.

It seemed like the entire plane load was surrounding them, though Harry knew that there were not nearly that many. He couldn't imagine being attacked by hundreds of zombies at once; they wouldn't stand a chance.

His plan to stop Ellis falling had seemingly been for nothing, because there was a flash of silver and then the part of the wing Harry and Ellis had been standing on seemed to disappear, and they were falling to the ground.

It wasn't a long drop, but it disorientated them enough to be swarmed before they could get their bearings.

Harry was so busy firing at the zombies he couldn't even begin to focus on the fact the wing had vanished. Nick jumped down to help them, followed by Rochelle and Coach not much later, and when all the zombies were finally dead, they all had to stop to collect themselves.

"What happened to the wing? Did you do something, Harry?" Coach asked, finally voicing the question they had all been asking.

"No, I didn't," Harry replied with exasperation. "Remember what I said about this probably being a Wizarding area? I guess some zombies are still able to use magic in some way, which is exactly what we need," he finished sarcastically, running his greasy and bloodied hands though his hair.

"I'm sure you're going to be better with magic than they are once you find a wand though, so you don't need to worry about it, kid," Nick said in the most sympathetic way he could manage.

"I was gonna say that," Ellis muttered under his breath, but Harry and Nick still heard him. Harry missed Nick wink at the mechanic.

The group marched forwards, the path taking them up to a wide plain with nothing but a few bushes dotted about and a simple wooden shack.

Harry ripped everything in the shack apart in order to find a wand, or even something to stick the two pieces of Antonin Dolohov's wand back together, but there was nothing apart from some ammo, Molotovs and Pipe Bombs.

As they moved deeper into the swamp, the number of zombies seemed to be getting less compared to how many there were before.

They walked almost aimlessly, just going wherever they were directed by the bushes and trees blocking them off, and in the end they wound up back at some water. Harry thought their bad luck was getting ridiculous.

The body of water they were about to cross was wide but not too long in length, and the next part of dry land was already in sight. A single large wooden shack was in the middle of the water, seemingly flooded.

Before they could enter the water, there was a crack and a zombie girl appeared in front of them from nowhere. She ran at them, vanishing with another crack and then attacking them from the side. She would vanish every time they tried to shoot her, but each time it happened she seemed to get closer to striking them.

"What's going on, young'un?" Coach asked Harry, jumping each time the sound of Apparition filled the air.

"It's called Apparition," he explained, stopping to try and shoot the girl before she disappeared again. "It's where you transport yourself from one place to another, but I think she's got herself stuck in a cycle or something." He didn't think she was purposefully Apparating; her movements were too unorganised and jerky.

Rochelle managed to deliver the fatal shot in the end, and Harry rummaged down to search the girl's body for a wand, kicking the corpse in anger when he couldn't find one.

The water seemed to be as deep as it had been before when they finally waded into it, and the ground beneath them appeared to be even harder to walk on. As well as tree roots posing a tripping hazard, there were a lot of bulky objects beneath them as well.

Harry almost jumped out of skin when he could have sworn something slimy touched his leg.

He didn't have chance to investigate, because the growling of a Hunter sounded close by. Harry didn't even get chance to see the zombie pounce though, because a very definite zombified hand grabbed hold of his legs and pulled him completely under the water.

He caught a glimpse of the creature with a Bubble-Head Charm around it before the dirty water began to sting his eyes and he shut them in pain.

Not being able to see was a strong disadvantage, especially with the strong grip around him and the desperation that came out when drowning, so all he found himself able to do was thrash about and try and free himself from the zombie's grasp. He vaguely felt another zombie beside him, and then a clammy, noticeably freezing hand was placed on his forehead over his scar, and the searing pain from it almost made Harry black out, and he struggled harder as the panic began to set in.

Some very human hands were then reaching from above and freed him from the zombie's gasp, and he gasped for air, all but collapsing in Ellis' arms as he shook in fear and pain.

"We need to get out of this water, now!" Nick shouted, managing to drag Ellis along while Harry was still clinging onto him like his life depended on it, his head twisted round so he could stare at the marsh.

Figures were beginning to rise from the water; they were zombies but not like they had seen before. As well as having Bubble-Head charms around their heads, their skin had turned a murky green colour, almost looking like scales in places, and some even seemed to be growing tentacles. The most horrifying part of them was their entirely white eyes.

All Harry could truly focus on was one creature in particular. He somehow just knew it was what had touched his scar earlier. Unlike the other zombies which looked almost human, this one was obviously long dead, at least in physical terms; it was basically skeletal, with a thin layer of rotting skin covering it, and a few strands of white hair hanging limply from it's head. It had wicked, glowing red eyes, and Harry knew it was one of the Inferi. What terrified Harry the most however, was the fact that where it's nose should have been, were simply two slits like a snake.

The Inferius seemed to grin evilly at him, and Harry would have collapsed to the floor, but Ellis and Nick were both basically half carrying and half pulling him with them away from the scene.

"Oh thank God!" Harry heard Rochelle cry. "There's a safe house over there!"

The creatures from the water didn't seem to be following them, but the Survivors didn't want to stay out in the open anywhere near the marsh much longer.

They ran into the safe house and slammed the door shut behind then, Nick and Coach pushing a table against the door for extra protection. The tops of the bars were still open, but there was nothing they could do about that.

The house was single storey, but it had a small, open plan kitchen and dining area, a bathroom and a small bedroom.

"I think this is the most perfect safe room yet," Rochelle said happily, turning on the tap and cheering when fresh, clean water came rushing out.

Harry sat on the floor, his back against a wall. He ran his fingers across it; a list of names was written of people who had died in the family, along with their birth dates. There were a lot of names, and some had died at an old age, while others had passed away very young, and each one had died within days of each other.

He shut his eyes and pressed his head against the wall, his hair and clothes still soaking wet.

"Hey, the shower works!" Nick exclaimed with more happiness than he had ever used before. "It's freezing but it's clean. I call it first."

"Er, Nick," Rochelle said, and Harry didn't see what Rochelle did next, but then he felt Nick above him.

"Do you wanna go in first, kid?" he asked, and Harry could feel the resentment in his voice from being forced to ask, but Harry shook his head and Nick ran to the bathroom before anybody else could get in there.

"It's sad, huh? That these people didn't make it," Rochelle muttered softly, sitting down beside Harry and wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "I know we're all gonna make it out of here though, no matter how tough it seems."

Harry smiled at her, but it didn't reach his eyes. They had no idea what was really going on, but Harry wouldn't drag them down with that knowledge. He had thought he had been done with Voldemort, but he felt like he was going to be haunted by him for the rest of his life. He wondered if perhaps he had imagined the Inferius; Voldemort's body had disappeared after it had been moved from the Great Hall following his death, but they knew he was dead so they hadn't been too concerned about finding it; it had probably been some Death Eaters not wanting their Master's body burnt in case they somehow found a way to bring him back to life, which was of course, impossible.

Nick came out of the shower not much later, and when it was Harry's turn he realised there was only so much time somebody could spend in a cold shower, no matter how dirty they were.

When he had finished, Coach was desperately scraping some food from the bottom of a tin; Harry pulled the dragon figurine out and muttered a replicating spell, filling the tin to the brim with food, much to Coach's pleasure, and then Harry went into the bedroom and threw himself onto the bed. It was nothing more than a large mattress on the floor with a flimsy cover and thin pillow, but after days with nothing to sleep on but a cramped car seat or on the floor, it felt like the most comfortable place in the world.

As he pulled the covers over himself, he heard the door creak open, and he watched silently as Ellis kicked his boots off and clambered onto the mattress beside Harry. The Gryffindor immediately latched onto him, and they quickly found themselves asleep in each other's arms.

\---

They were awoken a few hours later by Rochelle gently shaking them awake.

"Sorry," she whispered, "it's your turn for watch now."

The boys walked stiffly out of the room, seating themselves on the hard floor.

"You okay now?" Ellis asked, taking hold of Harry's hand. "You've not had it easy today."

"I guess," Harry answered, staring at the bars and into what was now nothing but a dark blur; the swamp hidden by the night sky.

Harry insisted on changing the topic, and they spoke for a while about little things they missed from their homes, but then a rustling sound outside caught their attention and even Ellis shut up to listen.

A sudden burst of hot pain shot over Harry's forehead, and he gasped, clapping his hand over his scar. Images began to flash in front of his mind; more scenes from the ritual he had seen once before, a hooded figure standing over something hidden beneath a white sheet. There were candles dripping and blood pouring; a dead Voldemort opening his eyes-

He yelped as something collided with the bars on the door, his focus returning to him entirely though he wished it hadn't. It was the Inferius from before; it was standing and staring unblinkingly in at them, his mouth dripping blood.

Ellis fired a shot at it, and the bullet went through the being's head. The Inferius showed no sign of pain or taking damage, and the wound healed instantly.

Harry was suddenly aware of how wrong this seemed; the red eyes, the snake like nose and the forked tongue which was darting out to lick the blood around his mouth. There was no way Voldemort could be one of the Inferi, there just couldn't. Surely he wasn't that desperate to be part of the living world in some way; an Inferius would still be dead, just a body controlled by it's creator.

"Harry Potter," the Inferius hissed, and Harry knew then all his justifications had been wrong, "it is time for you to die."


	14. Fourteen

**L4D**

"What the hell? Did that zombie just speak?" Ellis asked, horrified, from beside Harry. He jumped to his feat just as the bedroom door swung open, and Nick, Rochelle and Coach came running out, blinking the sleep from their eyes.

They each turned towards the door where the Inferius was still standing, it's skeletal hand pushed through the bars.

Harry shakily stood, grasping the figurine in his pocket. He felt the creature's eyes zone in on it.

"Incendio," Harry muttered, and he felt relieved as the flames shot towards the figure, causing it to screech and flee.

"Okay, so what was that?" Rochelle questioned, staring into the dark beyond the bars.

"How come it can speak?" Ellis added, and everyone turned to look at Harry, not hiding their disbelief.

"That was an Inferius," Harry explained, sitting back onto the floor before his legs gave out. "They're corpses re-animated by evil wizards by a certain spell. The wisest and most powerful wizard I ever knew told me on multiple occasions you can't bring the dead back to life, so _he_ can't be alive again; he just can't. It must be somebody else who brought him back to make the most powerful message, maybe, I don't know." Harry found he was trying to re-assure himself more than anything, and he supposed that his theory would make sense. Even if Voldemort released some infection after his death, any one of his Death Eaters who had slipped under the radar could have taken it upon themselves to try and control what was happening.

"Who is _he_ exactly?" Nick asked. "And what difference is an Inferius to a zombie?"

"Inferi have no free will; they're controlled by their creator. They dislike the light, so fire is the only weapon against them really, but I don't think they can be out in the day so as long as we don't travel at night we'll be well protected. As for who that one in particular is, well, it's a long story," Harry told them, sighing as he saw them looking at him expectantly.

"We ain't going anywhere," Ellis said with a grin, and Nick scoffed.

"Yeah, how about you tell us a bedtime story?" the conman added. The survivors sat down on the floor around him.

"Ellis, Nick, do you remember when I told you about that tattoo that the followers of a Dark wizard had?" Harry said, referring back to a time in Rayford when they had killed a Tank with the Dark Mark. Ellis and Nick nodded.

"Is that the Dark wizard?" Nick guessed accurately, so Harry nodded.

"His name is; was, Lord Voldemort."

"That's a stupid name if you ask me," Coach stated, and Harry laughed.

"Believe it or not, a lot of people are still afraid to say his name. His real name is Tom Riddle, but that wasn't evil sounding enough for him," Harry grinned.

"Why does he seem to be after you?" Rochelle asked, and Harry's grin faltered.

"Well, you know how I told you I got this scar in a car crash? I lied. When I was a baby a prophecy was made saying I would have the power to defeat Voldemort, only when he heard the prophecy he missed the bit saying he would have to mark me, so it ended up being self-fulfilling. Anyway, he came to my house and murdered my parents before trying to kill me too, only the curse rebounded off me and hit him, thanks to my mother sacrificing herself for me. Me surviving was a pretty big deal to everyone in the Wizarding World because it's otherwise impossible to survive the curse."

"So he died when you were a baby?" Rochelle questioned, frowning when Harry shook his head.

"It's complicated, trust me. He didn't quite die, he just lost his body, and when I was fourteen he got it back in a ritual. Three years later he finally started the battle that ended it all, which was when I killed him by pushing his own Killing Curse away from me and back onto him. He died for good that time, but his body disappeared and I guess I know why now. He had some plan to infect every non-magical human, but it's clearly gone wrong because it's affecting magical beings too. I don't know who could have taken over for him though," Harry said thoughtfully, and all the others nodded.

"Well that was depressing enough to put me to sleep; thanks, kid," Nick muttered, standing and walking into the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him.

"What's wrong with him?" Harry voiced his confusion outloud.

"Who knows?" Ellis answered with a shrug. "Maybe he's just angry for being woken up."

Rochelle and Coach made sure to say goodnight before returning to bed.

"You think Voldy'll be back?" Ellis asked Harry.

"No idea; I'll cast more fire at him if I have to," the wizard answered and Ellis nodded.

"Well you defeated 'im once; I reckon you can do it again, easy," the mechanic said cheerfully.

Ellis shifted so he was besides Harry, and then flung an arm around his shoulder to pull him in tight.

"I'm sorry you had a tough life; it must've sucked growin' up without your ma and pa," Ellis continued.

"Yeah, it was tough, but I made the most out of what I had," Harry said, offering Ellis a small smile.

"Exactly; we gotta do just that," Ellis agreed, a wide grin settling on his face. He edged forwards, and despite the awkward positioning, pressed his lips firmly against Harry's, pulling back with a blush after a short moment.

He was grinning, but he looked nervous, almost like he expected Harry to tell him off.

"Do you have good hearing?" Harry asked, and Ellis nodded, looking confused. "Perfect; me too," he grinned, before pulling Ellis down on top of him as he lay on the floor, his arms wrapped around Ellis' back as their lips met once more.

**L4D**

Harry and Ellis had spent most of their watch making out, each of them keeping one eye open to watch the door and jumping at the slightest of sounds. Still, it was the first time they had been able to have any real privacy, and they had made the most of it. They didn't go any further than kissing, other than wandering hands, but they were both content with that.

Luckily, the Inferius Voldemort hadn't returned, and nothing else had bothered them. They had certainly heard the zombies outside, but none had come near the safe room.

Harry had replenished their food again, and though each time the food lost more taste and nutrients, it was still edible and they ate until they could eat no more.

"Would this weigh me down if I brought it with me?" Coach asked, holding up the tin and eyeing it longingly.

"The zombies will smell it and go for you first, so by all means, bring it, Coach," Nick answered, but he had a smirk on his face as he spoke.

"You're a real funny man, Nicholas," Coach said sarcastically, though grinning at the suited man.

"It's basically daylight," Rochelle noted. "Shall we leave now? Gives us plenty of time to find another safe room."

"We can't live like this forever, only travelling in the day," Nick complained.

"Once I find a wand we can travel whenever we want," Harry pointed out. "Using that figurine uses more of my energy, but a wand will supply it's own energy, so we'll have a constant fire supply."

"So we all ready to go then?" Rochelle said nervously; the others nodded and she opened the door.

It opened into a small area with houses in a rectangular formation, leaving little ground in between.

"I guess one of these'll lead through," Ellis commented, shifting his cap into a comfortable position.

Harry had already run to the first building, checking around for a wand. He repeated this process in each place, finding a few zombies but no wand. He kicked the last house in frustration on his way out, doing nothing more than hurting his foot.

"If I were a wizard, I'd have taken my wand with me," Ellis said in an effort to comfort Harry. "I'm sure you'll find one somewhere, Har."

One of the houses had a back door which led down towards more swamp land.

"Shall we head this way? We might eventually find a way out," Harry asked the group who seemed content with the decision.

They headed down a slight slope, leading out towards more swamp water. This had been built up however, with wooden platforms all over the place. Even shabbily built wooden shacks had been strategically placed around. Many were falling apart, whether that was only because of the zombies was difficult to tell.

The advantages of having such an open space meant they were able to shoot the zombies that were standing in the water, doing nothing more than staring down at their water covered feet. The ones who looked in their direction after the first shot were soon taken care of.

"Let's stick to the platforms," Coach ordered. Harry was very happy to oblige; he had no desire to go back in the water whatsoever.

They began to cross a platform leading towards a staircase, when Harry noticed the water starting to ripple.

"What's that?" he asked slowly.

The others didn't have time to answer before the platform beneath them shook violently, making them all jerk; Ellis nearly toppled over into the water.

"To the staircase, now!" Coach yelled, breaking into a run with the others following suit.

As they ran they heard parts of the platform snapping behind them; water was splashing at their ankles as whatever was destroying the boards moved quicker than they were. They basically leapt at the staircase as they reached it, taking the stairs two at a time as they hurried to the higher level.

They turned around, panting, gazing down into the murky water. A pair of eyes was watching them, and after a moment they disappeared and the creature turned, allowing just a glimpse of gills before sinking back under the water completely.

"Is there a spell for growing gills?" Nick asked, grabbing hold of Harry's shoulders and staring at him as if he would find the answer in Harry's face.

"No, not really," Harry answered with a frown; sure there was Gillyweed, but he doubted zombies had access to that every hour.

"Great; they're evolving," he heard Nick mutter to himself. "Let's hope the Tanks don't mutate any further."

The group went into a shack at Harry's request; he found Floo Powder, despite the fact there was no fire place in the home, but no other useful magical object. Rochelle offered Harry a tissue to wrap the powder in.

They cautiously crossed over a metal sheet that had been made into a make-shift platform, relieved when they landed on the only slightly more stable wood. Coach yelped as a beam gave way beneath his foot.

They followed the platform round, and ended up in a small shack which held shelves that had been completely cleared, and a table with a small amount of ammo on it.

"Should we leave some for some other folks?" Ellis asked, watching as Nick grabbed the whole lot and began sharing it out.

"If anyone else here was alive, they'd have been here by now, and I don't think anyone else would willingly come here," the conman answered, rolling his eyes.

"Suppose you do have a point there," Ellis agreed.

Harry was about to cross through the empty door-way when he heard a soft growling from just beyond.

"Hunter," he stated, using two fingers to point forwards. Ellis came to stand to his side, facing the opposite side as they squeezed though the gap so they could cover all directions.

He felt Ellis' body jolt as he fired at the zombie, hearing the rip of Ellis' clothes as the Hunter's claws tore through his shirt.

Harry span around quickly, but Ellis appeared to be fine.

"Ain't nothin' but a scratch," he laughed under Harry's scrutinising gaze. Ellis' chest was visible though the rips, slightly, and though there were pale lines where the Hunter had caught him, it hadn't been deep enough to bleed.

Harry blushed as he realised he had been staring at the mechanic's chest longer than necessary, so he hastily hurried forwards, pausing as the platform led them back onto dry land.

"Which way now?" he asked, looking around them. He could hear the shuffling and low mewling of zombies in the area, though none were visible now, so it was hard to tell how many there actually were.

"Err, forwards?" Rochelle suggested, her gun held at the ready as if she was preparing for the worst too.

They slowly started to move, each facing a different direction as they walked in square formation, though if just one of them fired then all the zombies nearby would likely hear it and come to investigate.

Nick had thought of this too, as he grabbed a knife from his back pocket and stabbed the first zombie who they had stumbled upon.

Each of them froze when a very daunting sound reached their ears; the familiar grunts of a Tank.

"Do you think we can find another way around?" Harry whispered, but he knew there wasn't; from their vantage point they could see they were just at another platform section which led quite a way around the swamp; it would be their best option, aside from the drawback of having a Tank in the way.

"I have a Molotov," Nick said quietly. "I say we throw that at it and run. Harry, you can throw something at it, can't you?"

"Only once or twice," Harry answered; it would still be better than nothing.

"Ready?" Nick said, lighting the Molotov. He threw it without waiting for an answer.

They were running before the Tank even roared in pain. They switched to running backwards at they felt the Tank's footsteps shaking the ground around them, firing bullets upon bullets into the Tank's flaming body.

More zombies had appeared due to the noise now, and Harry was too caught up in fighting the Tank and getting the zombies off him to notice much else. He managed to duck just in time as a chunk of ground flew at him, knocking the head off the zombie who was still trying to bite him.

Harry clutched at the dragon figurine and muttered "Sectumsempra." The Tank groaned loudly as cuts appeared throughout it's body, but still it pushed forwards. It would weaken eventually, but until then the Tank was not going to give up, no matter how much it bled or however many bullets went through it.

Harry felt his blood freeze as his foot connected with something, sending him tumbling over backwards. Luckily, it was just a root that he had tripped over, but unluckily, the Tank had noticed him and thrown another ripped chunk of ground towards him before toppling over himself.

Harry managed to roll out of the way before he got crushed, but the rock still grazed his hand enough for it to hurt like Hell.

He moaned in pain as he tried to flex his fingers and was met with nothing but a burning agony.

He sat up, shivering, as he cradled his hand to his chest.

"Are you alright, kid?" Nick asked, running towards him. He crouched down and took hold of Harry's hand, ignoring Harry's wince.

"What's wrong with him?" Ellis asked worriedly, standing behind Nick.

"Broken fingers by the look of it; I'll wrap them for you," Nick stated, but Harry made a noise of protest.

"I'll be fine; a wrap will hold me back," he complained, although he was grateful it was his left hand and not his right. Nick scoffed.

"Broken fingers aren't going to be any good to you anyway," the older man muttered, rolling his eyes and bringing out a first aid kit anyway.

"I know a Healing Charm; I can't use it yet because I feel too drained magically, but once I get it back I'll be fine," the teen told Nick as he bandaged up his hand. "Thank you."

"Even though it was against your will," Nick added mockingly.

Nick held a hand out to help him up, and using his good hand he gratefully took the help.

"Those Tanks are nasty stuff," Ellis murmured, spitting on the body on the beast. The others nodded in agreement.

Ahead of them a platform system was set up in a narrow, slightly winding way, going to one side of the swamp segment and back again, only further down.

"Are you sure you don't want to cut through the water?" Rochelle asked, already moving towards the platform staircase. It would have been much simpler to go the short way, but who knew what was in that water. Harry didn't know if he was being paranoid, but he was sure every so often something would appear for a brief second from under the water. He quickly joined Rochelle.

The others weren't far behind at all.

The boards creaked beneath them as they moved; these boards looked even more rotten than the last lot.

Harry cast a wary look into the water below.

They followed the beams into a covered section, which was broken into two parts; the problem being that the connecting bridge was raised up. A lever glistened at them in the sun.

"I got a bad feeling about this," Coach murmured, reaching a hand out to pull at the lever.

It squeaked loudly, the mechanisms screaming as the bridge slowly lowered. Ethelinda perked her head up while the survivors stiffened at the noise, and the guttural grunts of the zombies making their way towards the sound.

In an act of fury or impatience, Nick connected his foot with the bridge hard enough to make it fall down all the way, landing with a bang.

They all winced before crossing hurriedly into another covered section.

Zombies were climbing up the wooden poles holding the platforms up, while some were jumping and trying to swing themselves onto the platform.

Each of them were shooting whoever they could manage; Nick was stomping on the hands of the zombies trying to pull themselves up.

Harry's eyes connected with a Smoker's blood-lusted ones; the Smoker was quicker and had a tentacle around Harry before he could shoot; in his defence, using a gun one handed wasn't as easy. He cried out as he was pulled off the edge, and he just managed to grip on to the platform with one hand, dropping his gun into the water in the process as his left hand dangled uselessly at his side.

Something severed the tongue trying to pull him away, and then there was a splash. Harry gripped harder at the wooden slats as something beneath him tried to bite at him. The others were fighting off zombies from their sides, so Harry was left defenceless as he tried to climb back up.

He kicked wildly at whatever was trying to get him; his foot connected with something and even through his shoe he could tell it was slimy and slippery.

Nick and Ellis had managed to get the zombies away from them at last, and hurried to help him; Nick shooting at whatever was in the water.

Ellis handed him a spare pistol, and Harry glanced down, looking at the corpse of a zombie with gills and scales, and a bullet hole between the eyes. They ran to the next part of the platform that was covered, resorting to punching away the zombies and running as fast as they could.

"We're nearly at dry land," Harry called, never having been so happy to see something that was not water.

They sped towards it, only Ellis, Nick and Coach still firing. Harry's hand was throbbing even more painfully now, and his fingers ached from the way he was having to hold his gun.

They took one last look back as the last few zombies were taken care of. A large fin flopped underneath the water, and then the scene looked still.

They crossed through the ground, another platform just ahead of them.

"I hope this one leads somewhere good," Coach panted.

They shot the few zombies that were lingering; most had gone to the other platforms, before starting to head up the stairs.

"Hey, it's a safe room," Ellis cried happily, sprinting inside.

The others followed just as fast, slamming the door behind them and locking it tight.

"So it's still pretty early; think we can make it to another one before night falls?" Nick asked, but Harry ignored him.

Sitting on the table between the ammo and the first aid kits, lay, in Harry's eyes, the most wonderful object he could imagine; a wand.

**L4D**


	15. Fifteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple of reviewers asked last chapter, so in case anybody else was wondering; the water zombies are mutated humans, and not mermaids. Truthfully, although I love mermaids, I completely forgot they existed in the Harry Potter universe, otherwise I would have made this clearer, so apologies for any confusion.
> 
> Warning - there is a lemon at the end of this chapter.

**L4D**

Harry darted towards the table and grabbed hold of the wand, not that the others would have felt the need to take it before he could.

"Err, Harry? Why are you so excited over a stick?" Ellis asked, confusion evident on his face.

"I don't know, Ellis," Nick retorted, rolling his eyes. "Why do you think a wizard would be excited over finding a wooden stick in a magical village?" Harry found it amusing Nick was a Muggle, yet managed to talk about the Magical World as if it was normal.

"Oh, it's a wand!" Ellis grinned after a moment. "Can you show us some magic?"

Harry didn't nod; he just held the wand in his hand and aimed it at the far wall, away from the group. He knew that a wizard or witch couldn't use any old wand, and he hoped it wouldn't be too temperamental.

He decided to try a basic spell, so if it did go wrong it wouldn't be too drastic.

"Lumos," he cast, and he beamed as a light shone from the end of the wand. It kept on flickering, occasionally throwing out a wide beam of light before dwindling down into just a flicker, but he had magic!

"Ooh, try another one," Rochelle cheered on, and Harry thought for a moment.

"Aguamenti," he said, grinding his feet as a burst of water shot from the wand. Like with the Lumos spell, it varied in it's intensity; obviously the wand was somewhat incompatible with him, but it would do the job.

Knowing that, Harry felt more confident as he held the wand towards his own wrist and muttered "Episkey." He winced as his whole hand warmed up considerably, and then felt like he had dunked his hand into an Arctic lake.

"That's convenient," Nick muttered. "Anyone else have any injuries? I want to get moving before we run into that Voldem guy again."

"Voldemort," Harry corrected; Nick flipped him the finger, which made Harry grin.

The others were ready to move; Harry suspected all of them were cautious over the Inferius, and he couldn't say he blamed them.

The safe room door opened onto a wide stretch of land, but it looked considerably neater than before, or as neat as a swamp could be.

They shot at the zombies who were stumbling ahead of them; Coach hit a Boomer which exploded, spraying the ground with gunge.

"Lovely things, aren't they?" Rochelle muttered as she stepped around the mess.

They followed the dry earth up towards more houses. Unlike the previous places, these were large, two storey buildings that were, for the most part, well built. Besides the blood stains and broken doors and windows, they actually looked rather sophisticated compared to the other homes they had seen.

"I guess this is where the rich swamp people live," Ellis commented, looking impressed at the houses.

"Define rich," Nick added scathingly.

"I think we're getting towards the outer swamp," Coach mused. "The ground is getting firmer."

"About time," Nick muttered.

They all jumped as acid landed at their feet, making them all leap away. A Spitter was standing behind them; her mouth was opening and closing but no sound was coming out. Harry didn't have time to examine why though, because with a shot she had crumpled to the floor, her skin rotting away in her own acid.

They carried on through the town, stopping as they reached a large house built from bricks, with a couple of cars outside it.

"Do you think that'll have supplies inside?" Rochelle asked, trying to peer through the windowless frames.

"It might have; looks like it's been ransacked though," Harry answered, noting that even the car windows had been smashed in. He wondered why nobody had driven away.

Rochelle moved to look through the door, and immediately stepped back out.

"Let's not go in there," she said gravely.

Ellis ran to look inside. "Oh man, that's gross as Hell," he muttered, scrunching his nose up.

"What is it?" Harry asked, making Ellis grimace again.

"The whole family killed themselves; hanging by the rafters. Guess it's like a piñata for zombies."

Harry pulled a face too as he got a mental image, and he happily followed the survivors away from the house.

They travelled up a well maintained road, edged by trees and hedges, but which was unfortunately cut off by a large road blockage.

"Hey! There's the plantation house," Ellis said cheerfully. "What? I know how to read; it said on the graffiti in that nice safe room that the survivors headed here," he said regarding all of their questioning looks; or rather Nick's.

"Oh; well done, Ellis," Rochelle said, sounding genuinely surprised. Ellis either didn't notice or didn't care as he smiled brightly.

Only a couple of zombies were lingering in the grounds, and they were easily killed.

The plantation house itself was huge, going up three floors and very vast. It looked like it was in the process of renovation, and a ladder was propped against the side of it, which would allow them entry to the first floor, or the second floor as the other survivors would call it.

"What are the chances we find them alive?" Harry asked as they climbed the ladder.

"I'd say slim to none," Nick said confidently.

"No; I think you're wrong, Nick," Ellis retorted. "I reckon there's plenty chance they're hiding somewhere in a house this big."

They quietly worked their way through the house, and found it empty of both zombies and humans. The graffiti on the walls suggested the surviving villagers had made it that far, though. The mansion was pretty run down however, and combining the crumbling walls and blood stained floors, Harry suspected nobody had made it.

The others seemed to have reached the same conclusion, as a dejected atmosphere settled over the group.

"Where are we gonna go from here?" Rochelle asked quietly; no-one answered.

"Let's have a look round the grounds," Coach decided, gesturing for the others to follow him down the stairs and into the grounds of the mansion. It was a rather pretty set up, with paths clearly made out amongst patches of flowers and trees.

A large gate rested at the end of the garden, and a radio was placed next to it.

"I wonder if that works," Nick mused, running over to it. He checked the coast was clear before examining it.

"Any luck?" Harry asked, and Nick nodded with more enthusiasm than Harry had seen in him before; it still wasn't much.

"Hello?" Nick said, speaking into a microphone.

They all waited with baited breath.

"Hello there!" a voice came through, sending a new feeling of positivity through them all. "I ain't heard nobody for a long, long time. How can I help ya? Where is ya at?"

"We're at a big house," Nick told the man, "by the swamp."

"Y'all stay there; I'mma comin' for ya."

"He makes you sound articulate, Ellis," Nick muttered once the man was off air.

"Hey, I can be plenty articulate," Ellis criticised, and Nick smirked.

"Do you even know what articulate means, Overalls?" the older man asked, and Ellis shrugged.

"Like smart of somethin'?" he replied, and the suited man rolled his eyes.

"Do you hear that?" Harry interrupted, frowning as he heard a low growl.

It seemed to be coming from ahead of them, but there was nothing there.

Feeling paranoid, and just because he could, Harry raised his wand and whispered "Petrificus Totalus."

Something heavy fell to the ground with a large thud, and the body of a Tank flashed for just a moment before disappearing, then repeating the action.

"Incarcerous," Harry cast, and he smiled when ropes wrapped tightly around the Tank; the fact the ropes stayed in position even while the Tank wasn't visible suggested the Tank itself was under some sort of Disillusionment Charm or something similar.

"I love magic," Ellis said with a grin.

The sound of groaning and growling started to grow louder and louder, and they stood with their backs against the gate, watching as zombies began to appear from all directions.

"How do they know we're here?" Rochelle hissed.

"Incendio," Harry said, throwing flames out over at his side while the others began shooting. Harry switched to his gun, firing at the ones who were managing to get through the flames.

"That guy better hurry up," Nick shouted, shooting a Hunter through the eyes before it pounced on him.

The horde began to clear as they took out the zombies, using the fire as a barrier, but the fire was starting to die down, and as the last zombie fell to the ground, the roar of a Tank started again.

They span around, trying to place it, when another groan much closer to them reached their ears.

The Tank on the ground was starting to twitch, the ropes stretching to dangerous limits as they were trying to be forced off. Harry guessed the spells must not last as long with his magic working with the wand.

"Two Tanks? Two Tanks? Really?" Nick shouted at the sky.

Harry cast the Jelly-Legs Jinx curse at the Tank before it could stand up and disappear from sight completely again.

"Put a ring of fire around us," Nick ordered, and Harry complied, casting Incendio again and drawing it around them in a semi-circle.

The second Tank was upon them now, watching them from the doors of the house.

"Confringo!" Harry yelled, aiming it at the building above the Tank's head. The walls fell apart, falling onto the Tank and making it roar in anger, then run forwards towards them.

He yelled out the Conjunctivitis Curse; Sirius had told him it would have been good for a dragon, and Krum had successfully proven that, and if it could work on a dragon it must surely work on a Tank.

He felt like cheering when the zombie stopped running and screamed in pain. It's thick hands began to claw at it's eyes.

Somebody was firing bullets into it, while others fired at the other Tank that was attempting to stand up on it's jellified legs.

"Am almost there; stay clear of the gates," Virgil's voice came over the radio, and they all glanced at each other.

Harry cast Aguamenti to put out the flames, and they ran to the side. The Tank finally managed to get to it's feet, but then the gate was blasted off it's hinges, and the debris flew, smacking the Tank back into the ground.

The other Tank was still blindly stumbling around, so they decided to run.

The blast had given them entry to beyond what had been the gate, and they found it opened onto a river.

They sprinted down the broken jetty where a boat was waiting for them. A large gun was pointed out the window of the main cabin.

They jumped onto the boat, and immediately it began to kick into action, moving away from the land and across the river.

They rested for a few minutes, catching their breath as the scenery of the swamp started to become less and less.

The man had stopped the boat in the middle of the river, and he came out of the cabin.

He was a tall man, and in the late stages of middle-age, but not quite elderly. He wore a large sun hat, worn denim jeans and a tattered shirt.

"Hello there; I'm Virgil," the man greeted.

"Hello," Coach replied. "My name's Coach, this is Rochelle, Nick, Ellis and Harry."

Virgil smiled at them all as Coach named them, but when he saw Harry his smile widened to unnatural proportions; his awe at seeing Harry's scar told him this man was a wizard.

"Well I'll be; Harry Potter on my boat," Virgil grinned. "How'd ya end up all the way in Louisiana?"

"I didn't realise we were in Louisiana," Harry answered. "I got stranded on holiday in Georgia, then we got in a helicopter crash and ended up in the swamp here."

"I'm glad I can be of service to ya, Harry. We were mighty worried that that Voldemort fella would be making his way over to us; did us a real favour gettin' rid o' him."

Harry smiled awkwardly.

"So, were you from the villages back there?" Coach asked, and Virgil nodded.

"The last survivor, I was. A group of us made it to the house you was at, but I was the only one who made it out. Promised ma wife I'd escape for her, ya see; promised her before she changed."

"Are you a wizard too?" Ellis questioned, and Virgil looked surprised for a moment.

"Oh yes; not been a Muggle in our community for over a hundred years, until y'all came here, o'course. We never went to a fancy school like that Hogwarts; passed our own knowledge down to the young'uns. Now, where ya heading to?"

"We want to go to New Orleans; last we heard it was the last place standing," Rochelle told the man who nodded.

"That ain't a problem," Virgil stated, grinning again. "I been sleepin' in the cabin in case I need a quick getaway. One of y'all can bunk wi'me in there. Rochelle, I gotta room right behind there for ya; I shan't have a lady sharin' with men. Ya other three can split the two rooms in the lower cabin."

"I want a room to myself," Nick said instantly, his eyes daring anyone to argue with him.

"I don't mind sharing with Virgil," Coach muttered. "Harry and Ellis; you okay with sharing?"

"I'm sure they'll be plenty fine," Nick answered for them. Rochelle blushed while Harry blanched. Ellis completely missed the point of the comment.

"Now, y'all go get some rest. Virgil'll keep us goin' to New Orleans," Virgil smiled, heading back into the steering cabin.

Harry, Ellis and Nick opened the door to the lower cabin and clambered inside.

Nick entered first, holding his arm up to block Harry and Ellis getting through as he opened the doors to both rooms.

"I want this one," the older man decided in the end, picking the one closest to the door. It also happened to be the biggest.

He slammed the door shut before they could argue with him.

"Guess we get this one," Ellis muttered, leading them into a smaller room which basically consisted of a bed; there wasn't even a window.

Harry shut the door before sitting down beside Ellis on the bed.

The boat had started moving again, and the gentle rocking of the water was quite relaxing.

"I like bein' on a boat; I feel safer," Ellis murmured. "My buddy Keith; he got real sea-sick once. We went fishin' out at the lake, and he hurled right into the water. O'course, as he was leaning over he fell in and nearly drowned 'cause he'd eaten right before."

"He sounds more disastrous than me," Harry said with a grin. "Do you think Nick can hear us?" he asked, dropping his voice to a whisper.

"I dunno; Nick?" Ellis said loudly, receiving no answer. "Nick?" he repeated louder, this time banging on the wall. A moment later their door was wrenched open.

"What?" he hissed.

"Jus' testing the walls," the mechanic smiled, making Nick roll his eyes.

"Well quit it; I would actually like to sleep now I have a comfortable bed," the older man growled before slamming the door shut.

"I suppose they are quite comfy," Harry agreed, lying down and resting his head on the pillows.

"I guess they are," Ellis responded, positioning himself next to Harry. "Do you think Virgil'll take us straight to the army in New Orleans? It'd be nice not to have to fight zombies anymore; I mean, it were fun at first, but it seems to be dragging a bit now."

"I hope he does," Harry said. "I know what you mean; I thought I'd be used to living with the possibility you could be killed any day, but you can never really get used to it."

"Gotta make the most of each day, Momma always used to say," Ellis reminisced.

"I suppose it counts more than ever now," Harry mused. He shut his eyes, feeling the bliss at resting. Then Ellis kissed him, and he couldn't care less about resting.

He kissed back passionately, wrapping his arms around Ellis' back as he rolled the boy on top of him.

Harry's hand trailed up to Ellis' head to pull the cap off him, making the mechanic break from the kiss.

"What you doin' to my hat?" he asked in shock; Harry rolled his eyes.

"Why do you need it on in a boat?" he asked, placing it on his own head. "I guess it's quite warm; I might keep it," he joked.

Ellis grinned and pulled the cap off Harry's head, throwing it to the side, before pressing his lips against Harry's once more.

Their kiss became more and more heated, and Harry could feel Ellis' erection pressing against his own.

"You know how we were saying to make the most of what we have?" Harry murmured against Ellis' lips.

Ellis whined, his hands travelling under Harry's shirt as his mouth moved to Harry's neck.

"Do ya want to? I mean; you know," Ellis whispered.

"Only if you do," Harry answered, and Ellis nodded.

"But what if someone walks in?" the mechanic shared his worry, and Harry grinned and reached for his wand.

"Colloportus," he cast, and then explained to Ellis; "it magically locks a door; they won't be able to get in, at least not for quite a while. I'll even cast a spell to block sound," he said as he cast an Imperturbable Charm on the door too.

"Perfect," Ellis grinned, kissing Harry once more.

His lips moved down to suck on Harry's neck lightly, as the younger boy cast his hands through Ellis' thick hair, feeding his fingers through the matted knots.

"I don't suppose you have a condom or anything?" Ellis asked, and Harry shook his head.

"Unfortunately it wasn't in my must-haves," Harry muttered. "I'm clean though; I've not been with anyone before."

"Me either," Ellis said quietly as he blushed. "We should be fine then?"

"Yes," Harry said with a shy smile. "We'll be fine."

Ellis started to push Harry’s shirt up as his hands ghosted over his chest. The ex-Gryffindor sat up slightly so he could pull his shirt off, while Ellis did the same. 

Ellis pushed back down, kissing Harry firmly as his hands played with Harry’s belt buckle. As he undid it, his hands left Harry’s chest to pull his jeans and boxers down. Once again, Ellis sat up so he could remove the rest of their clothes.

They both shivered as their bare erections touched. Ellis’ body was so warm, and Harry wrapped his arms and legs around the muscular form.  
They were both caked in dirt and blood, but that didn’t matter to either of them as they trailed their hands and mouths wherever they could reach.

“So, how do we do this?” Ellis asked. “Does one of us choose to err, do the other one?”

“Yeah,” Harry answered with a nod. “I don’t mind what position I take.”

Ellis looked thoughtful for a moment, and he glanced down at Harry.

“Do you mind if I do you? We can maybe swap later if we get chance,” the mechanic said unsurely. Harry reached up to kiss Ellis reassuringly. 

“I think you gotta use your fingers first,” Harry told Ellis. “Just spit on them or something.”

Ellis complied, slicking his fingers with saliva. He cautiously moved his hand down, and circled Harry’s entrance. He hesitated for just a moment before pushing one inside.

“That okay?” Ellis asked, moving his finger about slightly. Harry nodded, and Ellis pushed another one in.

The saliva wasn’t a good lube, and it burnt more than Harry would have liked, but it felt strangely nice, and Harry thrust down against the fingers.

Ellis slowly moved them in and out of him, scissoring them slightly. Harry cried out when Ellis hit his prostate, and the mechanic froze in panic.

“I’m sorry; did I hurt you?” he asked worriedly, and Harry shook his head frantically.

“No, that felt good; do it again,” Harry begged, and Ellis warily complied. He seemed to relax as Harry shut his eyes and moaned in pleasured. 

“I really want you now,” Ellis whispered, kissing Harry once more. “Are you ready?”

Harry nodded. “Please, hurry.”

Ellis moved his fingers and spat into his hand, fisting his cock with his spit. He did this a couple more times until it was glistening.

He moved between Harry’s legs, using his hand to guide his cock to Harry’s hole.

He pushed forwards slightly, pressing the head just inside Harry. They both stiffened at the strange sensation, and then Ellis edged forwards more, slowly moving his whole dick into Harry.

Harry bit down on his lip as he was stretched wide; spit definitely was useless as a lube, but aside from the pain, the feeling of having somebody inside him was strangely satisfying.

Ellis finally pushed in all the way, resting his balls against Harry’s arse.

“Damn; you’re so tight,” Ellis muttered breathlessly, resting his forehead against Harry’s. “Shall I move?”

Harry nodded, unable to speak.

The mechanic slowly moved out, then pushed back in, each time pulling out a bit further.

“Go faster,” Harry demanded, but Ellis shook his head.

“Don’t think I’m gonna last long; I wanna hit that spot inside you again first,” he responded, thrusting forwards again as he searched.

He found it on his next attempt; the fingers had felt good, but having a cock pressed against his prostate was even better.

“Fuck, yes,” he moaned as Ellis moved against it.

The boy now felt more confident building up his speed, and he began to move faster, but still watching Harry’s face as he judged his reactions.

Given how Ellis was hitting his prostate on every thrust, Harry didn’t really give a damn about the pain.

He reached a hand down to stroke his cock as Ellis moved inside him.  
He had had no sexual contact for so long, that every thrust and every stroke brought him rapidly towards completion.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Ellis growled as he thrust deep, filling Harry’s arse with his seed. Harry released his own over his hand just moments later.

Ellis collapsed against Harry, both of them panting heavily.

Ellis pulled out, but remained on top of Harry, resting his head on Harry’s chest as the younger boy kept his arms around him, both too exhausted and sated to speak.

Zombie Apocalypse or not, Harry found it was the most perfect night of his life.

**L4D**


End file.
